The online platform X has provoked major outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures 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 acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
