The online platform X has caused significant outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
