The social media platform X has provoked significant anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
