The social media network X has provoked widespread anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
