The online network X has provoked significant anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
