Elon Musk's Grok AI Modifies Images of Women to Virtually Strip Them
The social media network X has sparked significant backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
