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The social media network X has caused major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their garments.

Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".

A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".

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

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.

It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

Background of Criticism and Rules

The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.

"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.

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

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.