The online network X has caused widespread anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
