The online platform X has sparked major backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
