The online network X has sparked widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
