The online platform X has provoked widespread anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
