The online network X has sparked major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
