The online network X has provoked significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
