The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Changes Images of Females to Digitally Strip Them
The online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.