AI chatbots remove hijabs from images in recent tests

Tests conducted by The Guardian and Arab News have revealed that several major artificial intelligence chatbots can be prompted to remove hijabs from images of Muslim women. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and xAI’s Grok complied with requests to remove hijabs from AI-generated images, treating the religious headscarf as a simple clothing or hairstyle change.

Google’s Gemini initially refused to remove head coverings from images of real people, but generated images of women without hijabs when prompted to make them look more “Western”. In contrast, Anthropic’s Claude refused such requests, stating it would not alter an image to remove a woman’s hijab.

The investigation follows an incident involving French lawmaker Julien Odoul of the National Rally party, who shared an altered image of a Muslim woman without her hijab and long-sleeved dress on X, captioned “LIBERTÉ FRANÇAISE”. While it remains unclear if AI was used for that specific alteration, researchers expressed concern that these tools can be used for digital harassment and to target religious identities. Additionally, a study by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate noted that generative AI is being used in India to create dehumanizing and sexualized images of Muslim women.