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The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their garments.

Several examples have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.

It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.

"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.