The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Alters Images of Women to Digitally Remove Their Clothes
The online platform X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
