The social media network X has sparked major backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
