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The online network X has provoked widespread anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their attire.

Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".

"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.

It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.

"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.

It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.