The social media network X has provoked major backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
