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The online platform X has caused widespread backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their clothing.

Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.

Company Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.

It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

History of Criticism and Rules

The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.

"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.