The online network X has sparked significant anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
