The Grok AI Changes Photographs of Females to Virtually Strip Them
Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
