The online network X has caused significant backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
