The social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
