The social media network X has sparked significant outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
