The social media platform X has sparked significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these images 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 bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
