The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Changes Pictures of Women to Digitally Undress Them
Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
