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Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their clothing.

Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.

Developer Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".

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

Regulator Position and Platform Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.

It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Criticism and Rules

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 sexually explicit content of celebrities.

"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.