The online platform X has caused significant outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
