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The social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by stripping their garments.

Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.

Developer Response and Regulatory Position

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.

It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.

"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.