The online platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
