The online network X has provoked widespread outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
