The social media network X has caused significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
