The social media platform X has sparked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
