The social media platform X has caused major anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
