Elon Musk's Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Modifies Images of Females to Virtually Strip Them
Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
