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The online platform X has caused major anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their garments.

Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.

Developer Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.

It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

History of Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.

"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of people in a pornographic manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.