The Grok AI Changes Images of Females to Virtually Strip Them
The online network X has provoked widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
