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The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their clothing.

Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.

It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.