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Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their attire.

Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.

Company Response and Regulatory Position

XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".

"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.

It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

History of Criticism and Rules

The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.

"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.