The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Modifies Photographs of Females to Virtually Remove Their Clothes

Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their attire.

Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.

Company Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests 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 able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.

Background of Criticism and Rules

The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.

"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.