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The social media network X has provoked significant outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their attire.

Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Company Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.

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

It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.

"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.