The social media network X has sparked major outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
