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The online platform X has caused widespread anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.

Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Response and Regulatory Stance

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

A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.

It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate content of celebrities.

"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.