The online platform X has sparked major backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
