The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Alters Photographs of Women to Virtually Strip Them
The online network X has sparked major backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered 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 promptly when they become aware of it.