The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Changes Images of Females to Virtually Remove Their Clothes

The social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their clothing.

Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Company Response and Regulatory Position

XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".

A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".

"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.

It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.

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

XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of individuals in a pornographic manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.