The social media platform X has provoked major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
