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The online platform X has caused major backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.

Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.

Developer Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".

"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.

It is often used to offer reactions or further background 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 Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.

"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".

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

It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.