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The social media network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their attire.

Several examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".

"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.

It is frequently used to give reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.

"X has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.

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

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.