The online platform X has caused major anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
