The social media platform X has provoked widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
