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The social media network X has provoked major backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their garments.

Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.

It is commonly used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

History of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.

"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.