The social media platform X has caused major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
