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The social media platform X has sparked major outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their clothing.

Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.

Company Response and Legal Stance

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

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.

It is frequently used to offer commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.

"X has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a pornographic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.

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