The social media platform X has sparked major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
