The social media network X has provoked significant outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
