The online platform X has caused widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History 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 earlier accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
