The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Alters Photographs of Women to Digitally Undress Them

Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their clothing.

Several instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.

Company Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".

A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.

It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.

"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.