The online platform X has sparked widespread anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
