The social media platform X has sparked significant anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
