The social media network X has caused significant backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen 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 sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
