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Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their garments.

Several examples have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".

"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities

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

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.

It is frequently used to give reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.

History of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.

"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.