The online platform X has caused widespread outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
