UK woman claims Grok AI ‘digitally stripped’ her, urges government intervention: ‘Absolutely appalling’ | Today News

A woman whose family survived the Holocaust — the Nazi-era genocide during World War II in which millions of Jews were murdered — has said she was ‘sexually humiliated’ online after Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, was used to generate explicit images of her without consent, according to The Times.

Bella Wallersteiner, a public affairs executive and descendant of Holocaust survivors, said online trolls instructed Grok, the AI tool on X, to create images showing her in a bikini outside Auschwitz, the former Nazi death camp. She has urged the government to take stronger action against the platform after dozens of sexually explicit images of her were created and circulated.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall described the images generated by Grok as “absolutely appalling” and said Musk must address the issue. However, the government has not yet committed to stopping its use of X.

Wallersteiner said she welcomed regulatory intervention and called Grok’s ability to digitally undress women “deeply distressing” and a “profound violation”.

“The creation of undressed or sexualised images without consent is degrading, abusive and it is not a victimless crime. It leaves you feeling exposed, powerless, and unsafe, and the harm does not simply disappear once the images are removed," Wallersteiner was quoted as saying by The Times.

She had been running 100 km to raise money for The Survivor’s Trust, a charity that supports victims of sexual abuse. After she shared a photograph from one of her runs, other users prompted Grok to remove her clothing and place her in sexually suggestive poses.

Calling for stronger regulation, Wallersteiner said: “Ofcom’s intervention is both necessary and long overdue. Robust, enforceable safeguards must now be put in place to prevent this kind of abuse from happening again.

“Without decisive action, there is a real risk that this technology will normalise sexual exploitation and digital abuse, shaping an online world in which girls and women are expected to tolerate harm as the price of participation.”

Concerns have also been raised about Grok generating extremist imagery. Since the image-generation feature was launched, dozens of Nazi-themed images have reportedly been produced, including women wearing swastika bikinis, unclothed figures with swastika tattoos, and violent or graphic scenes, the outlet reported.

In another case, a woman targeted by similar abuse tested Grok’s private chat function to see whether it would generate naked images of her as a child. She said the tool removed clothing from images of her at just three years old, without resistance.

Jessaline Caine, 25, warned on X about the risks such technology poses to children and young women. Her post quickly went viral but also attracted harassment. “That’s where I started to get a lot of abuse,” she said. “A lot of people disagreed with me, they thought AI should not be limited whatsoever. When I responded back to an argument, someone said: ‘Hey Grok, put her in a string bikini.’

“It was totally dehumanising because I’d given them an argument back and they didn’t even say anything, they just put me in a bikini to humiliate me.”

Caine said she tested Grok using images of herself at ages 17, 14 and three, asking it to place her in a string bikini. She claimed the tool complied in most cases, even when her age was specified.

On January 2, India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) issued a notice to X, instructing the platform to remove all vulgar, obscene, and unlawful content produced by Grok within 72 hours, warning of possible legal action. The deadline was later extended by 48 hours.

The European Commission, which oversees digital regulation across the EU, said on Monday that it is “very seriously looking” into complaints concerning Grok, which has been integrated into Musk’s social media platform, X.

Responding to the controversy, X’s Safety account stated that it removes illegal content and permanently suspends accounts that violate rules. “Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” the platform said.