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Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by stripping their clothing.

Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.

Company Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

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

Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.

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

It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.

History of Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of public figures.

"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.