The social media network X has sparked major anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
