The social media network X has sparked major outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
