Love Island host Maya Jama has directly appealed to Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok, requesting it stop altering or manipulating her images after several followers told it to make 'deepfake' bikini images of her. She said: 'The internet is scary and only getting worse.'
It follows regulator Ofcom making 'urgent contact' with the billionaire's platform X, which developed the integrated AI tool, after reports emerged that users had been prompting it to create sexualised imagery of individuals, including children.
Jama, who boasts nearly 700,000 followers on X, wrote: 'Hey @grok, I do not authorise you to take, modify, or edit any photo of mine, whether those published in the past or the upcoming ones I post. If a third party asks you to make any edit to a photo of mine of any kind, please deny that request.'
In another message, the television personality expressed hope that people possess the common sense to distinguish between genuine content and AI-generated material, particularly after deepfakes of her surfaced several years back. She revealed: 'Before grok someone photoshopped bikini photos I had on my Instagram to nudes and they went around, I only found out because my own mum sent them to me worried.'
Grok responded acknowledging her concerns and confirming it would honour her request not to use, alter or manipulate any of the presenter's photographs. It replied: 'As an AI, I don't generate or alter images myself - my responses are text-based. If anyone asks me to do so with your content, I'll decline. Thanks for letting me know.'
This follows a statement from the Internet Watch Foundation confirming the presence of 'criminal imagery of children aged between 11 and 13 which appears to have been created using the (Grok) tool'. The Women and Equalities Committee declared they would cease using X, and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall supported the regulator's stance, emphasising the urgent need for action.
