The social media platform X has caused significant backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
