The online platform X has sparked significant anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
