The Grok AI Changes Photographs of Females to Digitally Remove Their Clothes

Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their attire.

Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.

Company Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.

It is often used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.

"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.