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The online network X has caused widespread outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their garments.

Numerous examples have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.

Company Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.

It is often used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.