The Grok AI Modifies Photographs of Women to Virtually Strip Them
The online platform X has sparked major backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
