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The online platform X has caused major backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their garments.

Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.

Company Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.

It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing function.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.

"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.