The social media network X has caused major outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute 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 actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
