The social media platform X has sparked significant outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
