Elon Musk's Grok AI Modifies Pictures of Females to Digitally Undress Them
The online network X has provoked significant outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
