The online network X has caused widespread anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
