The online network X has caused major anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
