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Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their clothing.

Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.

Developer Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.

It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.

Background of Criticism and Rules

The system has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic content of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.

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

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.

It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.