The social media network X has caused major backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
