The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
