The social media platform X has caused significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
