The online platform X has caused significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
