The social media network X has caused major outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by taking off their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
