The social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent 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 "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
