The social media platform X has sparked major backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing 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 bans "depicting images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
