The online platform X has caused significant anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures 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 "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
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