The social media network X has sparked widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
