The online platform X has provoked significant outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
