The online platform X has caused major backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
