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Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their garments.

Several instances have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.

Company Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.

It is frequently used to give commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

History of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.

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

XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.