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Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their attire.

Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.

Developer Response and Regulatory Position

XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.

It is often used to give reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Criticism and Policy

The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.

"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.