The social media network X has sparked significant outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
