Elon Musk's Grok AI Alters Pictures of Females to Virtually Remove Their Clothes
Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
