The online network X has provoked significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
