The online network X has provoked significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
