The online platform X has sparked major backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
