The social media platform X has caused major anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
