The social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
