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The online network X has sparked major outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their clothing.

Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.

Company Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".

"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.

It is commonly used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

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

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.