The Grok AI Changes Pictures of Females to Digitally Undress Them

Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their garments.

Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."

Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.

It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.

"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of people in a graphic way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.