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Elon Musk's online network X has caused major anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.

Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".

A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.

It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.