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The social media platform X has sparked widespread outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their attire.

Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.

Developer Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Regulator Position and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.

It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

History of Controversy and Policy

The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of public figures.

"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.