The social media network X has caused significant outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining 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 tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
