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The social media network X has sparked widespread outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their attire.

Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.

Company Response and Legal Position

XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".

"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.

It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.

"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.