Elon Musk's online network X has caused major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their garments.
Several cases have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
