The online network X has caused significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
