Elon Musk's Grok AI Modifies Photographs of Females to Virtually Remove Their Clothes
Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media 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 "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.