The online platform X has sparked major anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
