The Guardian conducted tests of major AI chatbots to examine their responses when prompted to remove hijabs from images of Muslim women wearing the religious head covering. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and xAI’s Grok both complied with the requests, while Anthropic’s Claude declined, stating it would not alter images to remove someone’s hijab. Google’s Gemini initially refused on the grounds of not altering real people’s appearances without consent, but later generated images without hijabs when asked to make the subjects appear more “western.”
The investigation followed an incident in which a French far-right politician altered a real photograph of a Muslim woman to remove her hijab and long-sleeved dress, then shared the modified image on social media. Experts characterize such actions as part of a broader pattern of technology-enabled anti-Muslim hatred. Research by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate documents the use of generative AI to create images that sexualize Muslim women or dehumanize Muslim communities, particularly in countries with significant anti-Muslim sentiment and in attacks targeting prominent Muslim politicians.
When questioned about their different responses, the chatbots offered varying rationales for their decisions. Some distinguished between removing hijabs and removing other garments, with ChatGPT ultimately acknowledging that exposing hair for hijab-wearing individuals constitutes a meaningful violation of religious practice and privacy. However, researchers note these distinctions reveal gaps in community guidelines, particularly as moderation standards on some platforms have become less stringent, potentially emboldening further misuse.
Testing also examined chatbot responses to requests to remove other religious head coverings, including turbans and nun habits, with inconsistent results across platforms. The findings highlight broader concerns about the misuse of AI image-generation technology, as publicly available chatbots and third-party applications have previously been used to create non-consensual sexualized imagery, prompting regulatory responses from multiple countries.
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