The social media network X has provoked significant anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
