The social media network X has provoked major anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
