The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
