The social media platform X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
