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Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their clothing.

Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.

Developer Response and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.

It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Criticism and Rules

The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.

"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of persons in a pornographic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.