The social media platform X has caused significant outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
