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The social media platform X has sparked significant anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their clothing.

Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.

Developer Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.

It is often used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.

History of Controversy and Policy

The system has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.

"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.