The online network X has provoked widespread anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
