The social media network X has caused significant backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their garments.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
