The online network X has sparked widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
