The Grok AI Alters Photographs of Females to Digitally Undress Them
Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
