The social media network X has provoked major anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.