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The online network X has caused major outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their clothing.

Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.

Company Response and Legal Position

XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.

It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.

"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.