The online platform X has provoked significant anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
