The online network X has sparked widespread backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
