The social media network X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
