The social media network X has caused widespread anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Several cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
