The online platform X has provoked widespread anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
