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Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their attire.

Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.

Company Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".

"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.

It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.

History of Criticism and Policy

The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating graphic content of public figures.

"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.