The online platform X has sparked significant anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
