The social media platform X has sparked major outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
