The social media platform X has provoked widespread outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
