The social media network X has sparked widespread backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
