The social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
