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Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their garments.

Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.

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

It is frequently used to give reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate material of celebrities.

"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.