The social media network X has caused widespread backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
