The online platform X has provoked significant outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
