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The online platform X has caused significant anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.

Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Company Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.

It is commonly used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

History of Criticism and Rules

The system has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.

"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.