The social media network X has sparked major backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
