The online platform X has provoked major outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
