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The social media network X has provoked widespread anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their garments.

Several instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.

Company Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.

It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.

History of Criticism and Policy

The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.

It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.