The social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms 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 regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
