Elon Musk’s X restricts Grok photo editing amid concerns about sexualised images

Elon Musk’s X has announced new restrictions on its AI chatbot Grok (Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA)

Elon Musk’s X says AI chatbot Grok will no longer allow users to edit people in revealing clothing in places where it is illegal, following international outrage.

The AI tool, embedded in the social media platform X, has allowed users to create thousands of sexualised images of women and children, by "undressing people" from real photographs.

In a post on X on Wednesday, the company said it had imposed restrictions on “editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis”.

“This adds an extra layer of protection by helping to ensure that individuals who attempt to abuse the Grok account to violate the law or our policies can be held accountable,” the company said.

“We now geoblock the ability of all users to generate images of real people in bikinis, underwear, and similar attire via the Grok account and in Grok in X in those jurisdictions where it’s illegal.”

The restriction will apply to all users, including paid subscribers, while image editing and creation will be limited to premium users.

On Wednesday, gardaí confirmed they are currently investigating 200 child sexual abuse images generated by Grok.

Mr Musk claimed that his chatbot would refuse to produce illegal content and appeared to blame “adversarial hacking” for the chatbot’s generation of sexualised images.

With Not Safe For Work (NSFW) settings switched on, he said in an X post on Wednesday that the chatbot is “supposed to allow upper body nudity of imaginary adult humans (not real ones) consistent with what can be seen in R-rated movies on Apple TV”.

“That is the de facto standard in America. This will vary in other regions according to the laws on a country by country basis,” he wrote on Wednesday night.

Mr Musk said he was not aware of “any naked underage images generated by Grok” and claimed the chatbot would “refuse to produce anything illegal” as its “operating principle” is to “obey the laws of any given country or state”.

Kelly: Musk statement 'doesn't convince me'

Labour TD Alan Kelly, who is chair of the Oireachtas media committee, said the statement from Mr Musk about Grok “doesn’t convince me”.

Moderation was not enough, he said, adding that there needed to be “robust” ways of dealing with the issue.

“The real issue here is, is if it's not X today, it could be a company called Y tomorrow. So this can't be continuous. We need to have robust ways of dealing with this, both at European and national level," Mr Kelly told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

“If Europe is going to be too slow in relation to dealing with these AI issues, well then, we as a country are going to have to lead and deal with it ourselves. We have robust laws to be fair, Coco's Law, which my own party was instrumental in bringing in, and obviously, in relation to the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998. 

"We need to ensure that those laws, which are quite good and strong, are complete in relation to how we can deal with this.

“We need to protect our citizens, protect our children. The issue here is expanded to how these AI tools are actually sexualising and nudalising not just children, but also adults and make sure that everybody is protected across the platform. This statement doesn't convince me, to be honest with you, I mean the very ending of it saying where it is illegal is a bit of a ghetto. 

"And also remember, at the end of the day, many people will have access to VPNs and possibly bypass some of this as well. So the platforms themselves need to deal with it.” 

Mr Kelly said he expected representatives from X to attend the Oireachtas committee meeting with social media platforms on February 4. 

“There's an invitation out to them. I expect them to turn up. I expect them to address these issues. I think it would be unacceptable if they don't. And collectively, and this goes beyond any politics inside here in Leinster House, collectively, we as a parliament, this government and everybody else needs to put in place the legislative basis to ensure that platforms cannot in any way shape or form, whether it's X using Grok or others cannot continue to sexualise children obviously, but also adults because we need to protect our people. 

"It's as simple as that. There is no debate.”