The online network X has provoked major backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by removing their garments.
Several cases have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
