The social media platform X has sparked significant anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
