The social media network X has caused significant outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
