The online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
