The online platform X has provoked significant backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
