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The online platform X has sparked significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their attire.

Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.

It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Criticism and Rules

The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.

"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of people in a pornographic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.