The online network X has sparked significant backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
