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The social media network X has sparked major backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their attire.

Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.

Company Response and Regulatory Position

XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.

It is commonly used to give commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.

History of Criticism and Rules

The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.

"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.

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