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The social media platform X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their attire.

Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.

Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.

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

It is commonly used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.

"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

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

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.