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The social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.

Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.

Company Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.

It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic material of public figures.

"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.