The social media network X has provoked widespread anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy 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 a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
