The social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
