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Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their clothing.

Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.

It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

History of Controversy and Policy

The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.

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

XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of persons in a graphic manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.