The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
