The online platform X has caused major anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
