The Grok AI Changes Images of Females to Virtually Remove Their Clothes
Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
