Elon Musk's Grok AI Modifies Pictures of Women to Virtually Undress Them
The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.