The social media network X has sparked major outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
