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The social media network X has sparked widespread anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their attire.

Several instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.

Company Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".

"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.

It is frequently used to provide reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.

"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.