The social media network X has caused significant anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
