The social media platform X has caused major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
