Elon Musk's Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Modifies Images of Females to Virtually Strip Them
Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
