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The online platform X has caused widespread anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their clothing.

Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.

Developer Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."

Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.

It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.

History of Criticism and Policy

The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.

"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of individuals in a graphic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.