The online network X has provoked widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their clothing.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
