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Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their garments.

Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.

Developer Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".

"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

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

It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.

"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.