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Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their clothing.

Several examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip 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 company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.

It is often used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Criticism and Rules

The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of public figures.

"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.