The online platform X has caused significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
