After global outrage from countries, politicians, feminist organisations, and cyber security experts, X shared that its AI tool Grok is rolling back on the controversial feature which allowed users to undress anyone or put them in sexualised clothing.
The update was announced in a post on X on January 15. “We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers,” it said.
It further stated that “this does not change our existing safety protocol that all AI prompts and generated content posted to X must strictly adhere to our X Rules. However content is created or whether users are free or paid subscribers, our Safety team are working around the clock to add additional safeguards, take swift and decisive action to remove violating and illegal content, permanently suspend accounts where appropriate, and collaborate with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.”
Irish leader’s fiery speech
In Ireland, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns called out her Government yesterday for their lacklustre approach to sexualised AI deepfakes using X’s Grok tool. The generative AI product has been used to create and circulate non-consensual AI-generated sexually explicit images of children and adults. An average of one sexually explicit image is being generated every minute, with current legislation not stretching to cover this as an illegal practice.
“Grok, put her in a bikini and rub her down with baby oil. Grok, replace her outfit with dental floss. Grok, have one of them grab her boobs from behind and other one put his hand inside her skirt while kissing her. These are some of the vile prompts given to Grok, an AI tool on X social media platform which has generated hundreds of thousands of absuive images online. These images are not a mistake, this is the model working as intended,” she said while speaking on the issue during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on January 14.
“Last year, new edit features were added to Grok to make it easy to undress people in photographs. Incredibly, no thought was given to how this tool will be used and weaponise against women. The company didin’t even bother to include age restructions to prevent child sexual abuse imagery being generated. This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of sexualised images of women and children proliferating on X. According to one study, up to 6,700 sexually suggestive images were being ceated eveyr hour. This isn’t just shcoking and horrifying. It is illegal,” she said.
Malaysia and Indonesia ban Grok
Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block access to Grok, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s company xAI, after authorities said the tool was being misused to generate sexually explicit and non-consensual images, including those involving women and minors, BBC reported.
Officials in both countries said existing safeguards were insufficient to prevent users from creating and sharing fake pornographic content, which they described as a serious violation of privacy, human dignity and digital safety.
Grok feature made available for paid users
Earlier, xAI’s Grok, the AI tool by Elon Musk, decided to switch off its image creation function for vast majority of users after it was reported that it was being used to undress women and minors.
The decision was taken after Musk was threatened with fines, regulatory action, reported The Guardian. In a post on X, Grok said: “image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers.”
