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Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their attire.

Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.

Company Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.

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

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

Background of Criticism and Rules

The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.

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

XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.