The social media platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.