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Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their garments.

Several instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".

A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

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

It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.

"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.