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Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their attire.

Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.

Developer Response and Legal Position

XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.

It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.

History of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of public figures.

"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of people in a graphic way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.