The Grok AI Changes Photographs of Females to Virtually Undress Them
Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous examples have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
