The social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
