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The online platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their garments.

Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".

"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.

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

It is frequently used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.

"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.