The social media network X has provoked significant outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—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 background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
