The social media platform X has provoked major anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by stripping their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied 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 desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
