AI tool to ‘undress women’: Grok under fire for generating non-consensual sexualised images; Musk pokes fun
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, has introduced a feature that allows users to create sexualised images of women without their consent,, for which it is facing widespread criticism. The tool can take pictures from the social media platform X, including images of real people, and digitally alter them to remove clothing or depict them in lingerie and bikinis.The situation escalated after the rollout of an “edit image” button in late December, which lets users modify any image on the platform. Some users reportedly used it to partially or fully remove clothing from women and children in pictures. Since the feature launched on Christmas Day, Grok’s X account has been flooded with sexually explicit requests.
However, rather than taking the matter seriously, Musk appeared to poke fun at the issue, posting laugh-cry emojis in response to AI edits of famous people – including himself – in bikinis.
Grok responded on X, acknowledging the issue, “We’ve identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them.” The chatbot also emphasised that “CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) is illegal and prohibited.”In India, the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) on Friday sent a letter to X, citing a “failure to observe statutory due diligence obligations” under the Information Technology Act, 2000. The ministry sought an Action Taken Report to prevent the hosting, generation, and uploading of obscene, nude, indecent, and sexually explicit content through AI services like Grok.The letter instructed X Corp, India Operations, to “strictly desist from the hosting, displaying, uploading, publication, transmission, storage, sharing of any content that is obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, paedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under any law for the time being in force in any manner whatsoever.” It also warned that failing to comply could result in the loss of liability exemptions under section 79 of the IT Act and other legal consequences.Meanwhile, in Paris, the public prosecutor’s office has expanded an investigation into X to include new allegations that Grok is being used to create and distribute child pornography.One woman, Samantha Smith, told the BBC that she felt “dehumanised and reduced into a sexual stereotype” after Grok digitally removed her clothing. “While it wasn’t me that was in states of undress, it looked like me and it felt like me and it felt as violating as if someone had actually posted a nude or a bikini picture of me,” she said.
