The social media platform X has sparked major outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
