The online platform X has sparked major outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
