The social media network X has caused widespread outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
