The social media platform X has provoked major anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
