The online platform X has sparked significant anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
