The social media network X has caused significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
