The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Alters Images of Women to Virtually Remove Their Clothes
Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
