The social media platform X has caused significant anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
