The online platform X has provoked significant anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
