The online platform X has caused widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
