The social media platform X has caused major outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
