The online platform X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
