The online network X has caused significant outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
