🔗 Share this article Elon Musk's Grok AI Alters Images of Women to Digitally Strip Them The social media network X has caused significant backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their attire. Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts. Developer Reaction and Legal Stance XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies". A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines". "The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences." Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images. Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a message. It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function. Background of Criticism and Rules The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities. "X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added. XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion". In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI. It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.