The online network X has caused widespread anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
