The online network X has caused significant backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their garments.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution 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 individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
