The social media network X has provoked major outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
