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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Dan Milmo and Amelia Gentleman

Grok AI: is it legal to produce or post undressed images of people without their consent?

Blurred search results are displayed on X on a laptop screen and reflected on the screen of an iPhone running the AI app Grok: the searches include 'grok remove clothes bikini' and 'grok remove clothing' and blurred images of clothed women are seen in the background
Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, social media platforms have to act on intimate image abuse, but the government has yet to introduce additional measures such as banning nudifying apps. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

The deluge of images of partly clothed women – stripped by the Grok AI tool – on Elon Musk’s X has raised further questions over regulation of the technology. Is it legal to produce these images without the subject’s consent? Should they be taken off X?

In the UK alone there is some doubt over the answers to these queries. Social media regulation is a nascent area, let alone trying to control the deployment of artificial intelligence. There are laws in place to tackle the problem, such as the Online Safety Act, but the government has yet to introduce additional measures such as banning nudifying apps.

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