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Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their attire.

Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".

"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.

It is commonly used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.

Background of Criticism and Rules

The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.

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

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of persons in a graphic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.