Content warning: This article contains references to sexual violence.
Grok, the A.I. platform built into Elon Musk’s X — formerly known as Twitter — is being used to undress women and children who had publicly available photos of themselves on the platform.
It has been reported that Grok has created potentially thousands of non-consensual images of women and children at the request of X users.
As reported the technology to remove clothing from a person’s photo has existed for several years but has not broken into the mainstream until now.
Since Grok is a free A.I. service readily available to the public — unlike more specific “nudify” software — it has enabled this behaviour to become mainstream. Furthermore, “nudify” software has historically been removed from app stores like the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, but X which operates like “nudify” software continues to be available on both app stores.
Though public pressure has led to the suggestion of placing a paywall on the service, neither X nor xAI confirmed that changes will be made to make image generation a paid-only feature on Grok.
In response to users’ illegal actions on Grok, Canadian Senate member Paula Simons has been calling for the government to abandon X as a communication platform.
As of writing, Canadian government officials have made no move to leave X and currently have no planned actions against the platform.
Overseas, some British Government ministers have threatened to ban X from the country amidst the ongoing situation with Prime Minister Kier Starmer appearing to lead the charge to get a host of countries, Canada included, to ban the platform.
As it stands, Prime Minister Starmer has failed to get the Canadian federal government to support a ban of X.
Musk shot back at Prime Minister Starmer by reposting a Grok generated image of him a bikini and Republican leaders in the United States government have threatened to sanction the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Starmer if he were to ban X.
The Canadian Federal Government Minister for A.I. has said the government is currently not planning to leave the platform.
To better understand the effects that A.I. and technology have had on women’s bodily autonomy and society at large, The Brock Press interviewed Dr Margot Francis, a professor of Women and Gender Studies at Brock University.
“Like many other scholars, I don’t believe digital technologies are inherently good or bad, but I do think they reflect the values of their creators and the systems that regulate them,” said Dr Francis.
According to Dr Francis, there is a good amount of research stating that “the internet is being weaponized to silence and target women’s, girls’ and queer voices,” citing a 2021 study revealing that 73 per cent of women globally have experienced some form of digital violence on Twitter (now X).
Dr Francis also referenced a 2023 study which found that “20 per cent of respondents who identified as transgender or gender-diverse and experienced tech-facilitated violence also reported severe impacts to their mental health, including their desire to live.”
When looking at the system in place, Dr Francis noted that the above concerns are intensified when considering the “intense concentration of power in a small number of big technology companies which now shape social, political and economic discourse.”
Such intense concentration of power serves to influence democratic debate which is all the more concerning when “there is good evidence that many owners of big tech are intensely misogynistic,” according to Dr Francis.
When asked about the adequacy of digital privacy laws in Canada, Dr Francis noted that the government currently lacks legislation that would serve to protect people online. However, she noted that the government is currently undergoing an amendment to Bill C-16, which would help strengthen protections against digital sexual violence, though there have been some detractors.
Dr Francis explained that the current lack of laws and regulations on the treatment of others in digital spaces “normalizes misogyny and implies that regulatory power is useless, which causes people to lose hope that democratic governance can be used to protect society at large.”
Dr Francis added that it “also makes it more difficult for women, trans and non-binary people to occupy public space and take up positions of leadership.”
When asked about a backsliding of women’s rights and a rise in misogyny, Dr Francis referenced an institute that outlines the context behind the rise in misogyny in young men.
On how to prevent these steps backward, Professor Francis said, “I think we need to think more broadly about strategies for more equitable societies for everyone.”
For students in need of support, Brock Sexual and Gender Violence has resources listed on their website.