The online platform X has caused widespread outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
