The online platform X has provoked widespread anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
