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The online network X has caused widespread outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their attire.

Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.

Company Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".

A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".

"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.

It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.

Background of Criticism and Rules

The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.

"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.