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Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked significant anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their clothing.

Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".

"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.

It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.

History of Criticism and Policy

The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.

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

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.