The online network X has provoked major anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
