The social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
