The social media platform X has sparked widespread outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
