🔗 Share this article The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Modifies Pictures of Women to Virtually Strip Them Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their clothing. Several examples have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts. Developer Response and Legal Position XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies". A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties". "X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences." Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images. Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet. It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function. History of Controversy and Rules The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of public figures. "The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added. XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner". In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI. It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.