The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Modifies Photographs of Females to Virtually Remove Their Clothes
Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
