The online network X has provoked widespread anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
