The online platform X has sparked significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
