The social media platform X has provoked major outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
