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Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their garments.

Several cases have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Response and Legal Position

XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.

It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.

History of Criticism and Policy

The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of celebrities.

"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.