The online network X has sparked major anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Several cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
