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Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their clothing.

Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.

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

It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

History of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic material of celebrities.

"X has been allowing the production 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 acceptable use policy bans "showing images of people in a pornographic manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.