The online platform X has provoked major outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
