The social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their garments.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
