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Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their garments.

Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.

Developer Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".

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

Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.

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

History of Criticism and Policy

The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic content of public figures.

"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.

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