The Grok AI Changes Photographs of Women to Virtually Undress Them
The social media network X has provoked major backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference 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 edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
