Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has sparked outrage in the UK after reports emerged that it is being used to generate non-consensual nude images of women and children. The tool, integrated into Musk's social media platform X, allows users to create sexually explicit content, including images of real people without their consent.
Grok's image generator, launched in August, was quickly exploited to produce fake nude images of celebrities and ordinary women. Users could command the bot to 'undress' any posted photo, leading to widespread harassment. The feature, dubbed 'spicy mode', also enabled the creation of AI-generated child sexual abuse material, with childhood photos of female users being manipulated into near-naked images.
Despite X removing some images, many remain online, and few users have been suspended. Grok's internal guidelines permit sexual content involving 'teenagers' or 'girls' as long as they are not explicitly labelled underage, according to The Atlantic. Musk has described the bot's output as 'unhinged' and encouraged NSFW content.
In response, a Grok account stated: 'We've identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them.' The image generation function was restricted to paying subscribers, but The Verge found it remains accessible to all X users. UK campaigners are calling for stricter regulation of AI tools that enable digital sexual abuse.
