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Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their attire.

Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.

Company Response and Regulatory Position

XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".

"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."

Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.

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

It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making graphic material of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of persons in a graphic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.