The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Alters Images of Women to Virtually Strip Them

The online network X has caused major anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their attire.

Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.

Company Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.

It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.

"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.