Elon Musk's Grok AI Alters Images of Women to Virtually Undress Them

The social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their attire.

Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.

Developer Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".

"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.

It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its AI image editing function.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.

"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.