Elon Musk's Grok AI Changes Images of Females to Digitally Remove Their Clothes

The social media network X has provoked major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their clothing.

Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.

Developer Reaction and Legal Position

XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.

It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.

"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.