The online network X has provoked significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
