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The online network X has provoked significant backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by taking off their attire.

Several examples have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.

Developer Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.

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

It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.