The online platform X has caused widespread anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
