The social media network X has provoked major outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
