The social media network X has provoked major backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
