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Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their garments.

Several instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".

"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.

It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.

History of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.

"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.