The online platform X has caused major outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate 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," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
