The social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
