The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Modifies Images of Women to Digitally Remove Their Clothes
The online platform X has sparked widespread backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by taking off their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
