The online platform X has provoked major outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
