The social media network X has sparked significant anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
