The social media network X has caused major backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
