The social media platform X has sparked major anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
