The online platform X has caused widespread backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
