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Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their clothing.

Several instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.

Developer Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.

It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.

"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.