The online network X has provoked major anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial 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."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
