The online network X has caused significant backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial 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 Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
