The social media network X has provoked significant outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
