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Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.

Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Response and Regulatory Position

XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.

It is frequently used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.

"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.