The social media platform X has sparked major anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
