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Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their clothing.

Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.

Company Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.

It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing function.

History of Controversy and Rules

The system has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic material of public figures.

"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.