The social media platform X has caused major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures 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 "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
