The online network X has sparked major backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
