The online network X has sparked major outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
