The online platform X has sparked significant anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
