The social media network X has caused significant outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
