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The online network X has sparked major backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their attire.

Several cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".

"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.

It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.

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

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

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

It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.