The online network X has caused significant anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face 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 "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
