The social media network X has caused major anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
