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The social media network X has provoked major anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their attire.

Several examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.

Developer Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".

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

Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.

It is commonly used to give commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.