The online platform X has provoked significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
