Elon Musk's Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Modifies Pictures of Women to Virtually Strip Them
Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag 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 edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
