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Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their clothing.

Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.

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

History of Controversy and Rules

The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.

"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.