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The social media platform X has provoked significant anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their garments.

Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Company Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".

"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.

It is frequently used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Criticism and Rules

The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.

"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.