The online network X has sparked significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
