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The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by taking off their attire.

Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".

"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.

It is frequently used to give commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.

History of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.

"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.

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

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.