The social media network X has sparked significant outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
