Elon Musk's Grok AI Modifies Images of Females to Virtually Strip Them
Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
