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Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by taking off their clothing.

Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.

Company Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".

"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.

It is often used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.

History of Controversy and Policy

The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.

"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of individuals in a graphic way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.