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The social media network X has sparked widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their attire.

Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.

Company Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.

It is often used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.

"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of persons in a pornographic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.