The online platform X has provoked significant outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their garments.
Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
