The online platform X has provoked significant backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
