The Grok AI Modifies Photographs of Females to Virtually Undress Them
The online network X has provoked significant outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
