🔗 Share this article

The online platform X has caused widespread anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their clothing.

Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".

"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."

Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.

It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

Background of Criticism and Rules

The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.

"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.