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The social media network X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their clothing.

Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.

Developer Response and Legal Position

XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".

"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Regulator Position and Platform Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.

It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its AI image editing function.

History of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.

"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of people in a graphic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.