Elon Musk's Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Modifies Photographs of Females to Virtually Remove Their Clothes
The online network X has sparked major anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
