The social media platform X has caused significant backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
