The online network X has sparked widespread outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
