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The social media network X has provoked major outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their attire.

Several cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".

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

"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.

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

It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

History of Criticism and Policy

The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.

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

XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.