The social media network X has provoked major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
