The online platform X has sparked widespread anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
