🔗 Share this article

The social media platform X has provoked major anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their clothing.

Several instances have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Company Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.

It is commonly used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

History of Controversy and Rules

The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.

"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.

It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.