The social media network X has sparked widespread anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
