The online network X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
