The social media network X has caused significant backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
