The online network X has provoked significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
