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The social media platform X has sparked significant backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their garments.

Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Company Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".

"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.

It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.

History of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making graphic material of public figures.

"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of people in a graphic manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.