The social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give 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 function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
