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Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their garments.

Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.

Company Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".

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

Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.

It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

Background of Criticism and Rules

The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.

"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of persons in a pornographic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.