The social media network X has provoked major outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.