The social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
