The social media network X has sparked significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
