The online platform X has caused widespread backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
