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Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their garments.

Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.

Developer Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".

"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.

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

History of Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.

"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.