The social media network X has caused significant backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
