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The social media network X has provoked significant outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by stripping their attire.

Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Response and Legal Position

XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.

It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

History of Criticism and Rules

The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.

"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit manner".

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

It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.