The social media platform X has sparked major backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
