The online network X has sparked widespread backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
