The Grok AI Modifies Photographs of Women to Virtually Strip Them
Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.