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The online network X has sparked widespread anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their garments.

Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.

It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

History of Criticism and Policy

The system has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.

"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.