The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Alters Pictures of Women to Virtually Undress Them
The social media network X has caused significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
