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Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their attire.

Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.

Developer Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.

It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its AI image editing function.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.