The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Alters Pictures of Females to Virtually Remove Their Clothes
Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
