The online platform X has caused significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided 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 "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
