The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Changes Photographs of Females to Digitally Strip Them
Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
