The online network X has sparked significant anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
