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The social media platform X has provoked major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their attire.

Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.

It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.

"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.

It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.