The social media platform X has sparked widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
