The social media network X has caused significant outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
