The online network X has provoked major anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
