The social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
