The social media network X has caused significant anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
