The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
