The online platform X has provoked significant backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
