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The social media network X has sparked major backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their clothing.

Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.

Developer Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".

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

Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.

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

It is often used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.

History of Criticism and Policy

The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.

"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

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

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.