The online network X has caused significant anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
