The online network X has provoked significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling 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 forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
