The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
