The social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
