The online platform X has provoked widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
