The online platform X has sparked major backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, 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 networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
