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Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their clothing.

Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.

Developer Response and Legal Position

XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".

"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool 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 investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.

It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.

Background of Criticism and Rules

The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.

"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.