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The social media network X has sparked major backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their garments.

Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.

Developer Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.

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

Background of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.

"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.

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

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.