The social media platform X has sparked major anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
