The Grok AI Modifies Pictures of Women to Virtually Undress Them
Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
