The social media platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
