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Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their attire.

Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.

Company Response and Legal Position

XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".

A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".

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

Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.

It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.

"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.