The online platform X has caused major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
