The Grok AI Alters Images of Females to Digitally Strip Them
The social media network X has sparked significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by removing their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.