The social media network X has sparked significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
