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Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their attire.

Several cases have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.

Company Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".

"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.

It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.

"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.