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The online network X has sparked widespread anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their clothing.

Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.

Developer Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".

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

Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

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

It is frequently used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Criticism and Rules

The system has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of persons in a graphic manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.