The online network X has provoked significant anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
