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Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their clothing.

Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.

Company Response and Regulatory Position

XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".

"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."

Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities

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

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.

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

Background of Criticism and Rules

The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.

"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.