Elon Musk's Grok AI Changes Pictures of Women to Digitally Strip Them
The social media network X has caused widespread outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.