The social media platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
