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The social media platform X has caused significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their clothing.

Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.

It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The system has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.

"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.

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

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.