The social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
