The social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by stripping their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
