🔗 Share this article The Grok AI Modifies Images of Women to Virtually Undress Them The social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments. Several cases have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations. Company Reaction and Legal Position XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies". A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines". "The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences." Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures. Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet. It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool. History of Controversy and Policy The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures. "X has been allowing the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added. XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic fashion". In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified 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 platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.