The social media network X has provoked major outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
