The social media network X has provoked major outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
