The online platform X has provoked significant outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
