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Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their clothing.

Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.

Company Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".

A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.

It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its AI image editing function.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.

"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.