The online network X has caused widespread anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
