The online network X has provoked major backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
