The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Modifies Images of Women to Digitally Remove Their Clothes
The social media platform X has sparked significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
