The social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
