The online network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
