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Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their clothing.

Several cases have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.

It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Criticism and Rules

The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.

"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.

It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.