The social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
