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The online network X has caused significant anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.

Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.

Company Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".

"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.

It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.

History of Controversy and Policy

The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.

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

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.