The Grok AI Modifies Photographs of Women to Digitally Undress Them
The social media platform X has sparked significant anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
