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The social media platform X has caused major anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their clothing.

Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.

Developer Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.

It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

History of Criticism and Policy

The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.

"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.