The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
