The social media platform X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content 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 artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
