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The online platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their attire.

Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.

Company Response and Regulatory Position

XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."

Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.

It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its AI image editing feature.

History of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.