The online platform X has provoked significant anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
