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The social media network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their garments.

Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".

"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.

It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing function.

Background of Criticism and Rules

The system has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.

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