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AFP, WASHINGTON
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Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) tool Grok on Monday faced a growing international backlash for generating sexualized deepfakes of women and minors, with the EU joining the condemnation and Britain warning of an investigation.
Complaints of abuse flooded the Internet after the rollout of an “edit image” button on Grok, which enables users to alter online images with prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.”
The digital undressing spree, which follows growing concerns among tech campaigners over proliferating AI “nudify” apps, prompted swift probes or calls for remedial action from nations including France, India and Malaysia.
Screens display the logo of Grok, developed by xAI, and xAI founder Elon Musk in Toulouse, France, on Jan. 13 last year.
Photo: AFP
The European Commission, which acts as the EU’s digital watchdog, joined the chorus on Monday, saying it was “very seriously looking” into the complaints about Grok, developed by Musk’s start-up xAI and integrated into his social media platform X.
“Grok is now offering a ‘spicy mode’ showing explicit sexual content with some output generated with childlike images. This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling,” EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier said. “This has no place in Europe.”
British media regulator Ofcom said it had made “urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK.”
Depending on the reply, Ofcom would then “determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation.”
Malaysia-based lawyer Azira Aziz expressed horror after a user — apparently in the Philippines — prompted Grok to change her “profile picture to a bikini.”
“Innocent and playful use of AI like putting sunglasses on public figures is fine, but gender-based violence weaponizing AI against non-consenting women and children must be firmly opposed,” Aziz said, calling on users to report violations to X and the Malaysian authorities.
Other X users directly implored Musk to take action against apparent pedophiles “asking grok to put bikinis on children.”
“Grok is now undressing photos of me as a child,” Ashley St Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children, wrote on X. “This is objectively horrifying, illegal.”
When reached for comment, xAI replied with a terse, automated response: “Legacy Media Lies.”
Amid the online firestorm, Grok sought to assure users that it was scrambling to fix flaws in the tool.
“We’ve identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them,” Grok said on X. “CSAM [child sexual abuse material] is illegal and prohibited.”
Separately last week, Grok posted an apology for generating and sharing “an AI image of two young girls [estimated ages 12 to 16] in sexualized attire based on a user’s prompt.”
The flurry of reactions came after the public prosecutor’s office in Paris last week expanded an investigation into X to include new accusations that Grok was being used for generating and disseminating child pornography.
Indian authorities on Friday last week directed X to remove the sexualized content, clamp down on offending users and submit an “Action Taken Report” within 72 hours, or face legal consequences, local media reported.
