The social media platform X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
