The social media network X has caused significant anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
