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The online platform X has sparked major anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their attire.

Multiple examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".

"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.

It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.

"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.

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