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Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their garments.

Several cases have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.

Developer Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.

It is commonly used to provide reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.