The online network X has provoked major backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
