The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
