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The social media network X has caused significant outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their garments.

Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.

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

It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.

"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.