The social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
