The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Modifies Photographs of Females to Virtually Strip Them

The social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their attire.

Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.

It is often used to give commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Criticism and Rules

The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.

"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.