The online platform X has caused widespread outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
