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The social media platform X has caused major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their clothing.

Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.

It is often used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Criticism and Rules

The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.

"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.