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Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their clothing.

Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.

Company Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Regulator Position and Tool Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.

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

It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.

"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.