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The online network X has provoked significant backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.

Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.

Company Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.

It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Controversy and Rules

The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.

"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of persons in a pornographic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.