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The social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their clothing.

Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.

Developer Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.

It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

Background of Criticism and Rules

The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.

"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of individuals in a pornographic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.