🔗 Share this article

The online network X has sparked significant backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their attire.

Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.

Company Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".

"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.

It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

History of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a graphic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.