The social media network X has provoked widespread anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
