The social media network X has provoked significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
