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Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their attire.

Several instances have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.

It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.

"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.