The online platform X has caused significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
