The online network X has caused widespread backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
