The social media network X has provoked widespread anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
