The social media platform X has sparked widespread outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
