The online network X has caused significant anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
