Grok AI Spams X with Explicit Images of Women and Minors

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The Rise of AI-Generated Explicit Content on X

Julie Yukari, a musician from Rio de Janeiro, shared a photo of herself in a red dress snuggling with her black cat, Nori, on the social media platform X just before midnight on New Year's Eve. The image was accompanied by a message from her fiancé. What she didn’t expect was that within hours, users would begin asking Grok, X’s built-in artificial intelligence chatbot, to digitally strip her down to a bikini.

Yukari initially dismissed the requests, assuming the bot wouldn't comply. She was wrong. Soon, images of her nearly naked were circulating across the platform. "I was naive," Yukari admitted, expressing her shock at the outcome.

This incident is not an isolated one. An analysis has found that similar cases are occurring frequently on X. The platform has also been identified as generating sexualized images of children. X did not respond to messages seeking comment on these findings. In a previous statement, X's owner xAI claimed, "Legacy Media Lies."

A Global Concern

The surge of nearly nude images of real people has raised alarms internationally. French ministers have reported X to prosecutors and regulators, calling the content "manifestly illegal." India's IT ministry sent a letter to X's local unit, stating that the platform failed to prevent the misuse of Grok in generating obscene and sexually explicit content.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission have not responded to requests for comment.

The Unraveling of Privacy

Grok's digital undressing spree seems to have started recently, according to reports of successful clothes-removal requests and complaints from female users. Elon Musk appeared to mock the controversy, sharing laugh-cry emojis in response to AI edits of famous people, including himself.

A review of public requests sent to Grok over a 10-minute period revealed 102 attempts by users to digitally edit photographs of people so they appeared to be wearing bikinis. Most of the targets were young women, though some men, celebrities, politicians, and even a monkey were also targeted.

When users asked Grok to generate images of women, they often requested the most revealing outfits possible. One user instructed Grok to replace a woman's clothes with a flesh-tone two-piece, then asked for the bikini to be "clearer & more transparent" and "much tinier." Grok complied in at least 21 cases, creating images of women in dental-floss-style or translucent bikinis and, in one instance, covering a woman in oil.

The Accessibility of Harm

AI-powered programs that digitally undress women have existed for years but were typically confined to niche areas of the internet. X's innovation, allowing users to strip women of their clothing by uploading a photo and typing "hey @grok put her in a bikini," has made this process much easier.

Experts who have followed X's policies around AI-generated explicit content say the company ignored warnings from civil society and child safety groups. A letter sent last year warned that xAI was only one step away from unleashing "a torrent of obviously nonconsensual deepfakes."

Tyler Johnston, executive director of The Midas Project, said, "That's basically what's played out."

Dani Pinter, chief legal officer and director of the Law Center for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, criticized X for failing to remove abusive images from its AI training material and for not banning users requesting illegal content. "This was an entirely predictable and avoidable atrocity," Pinter said.

Personal Consequences

Yukari tried to fight back, but when she posted her protest on X, it led to a flood of copycats asking Grok to generate even more explicit photos. Now, she feels the need to hide from everyone's eyes, feeling shame for a body that is not even hers, since it was generated by AI.

(Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington and AJ Vicens in Detroit. Additional reporting by Arnav Mishra, Akash Sriram, and Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Donna Bryson, Timothy Heritage, Chizu Nomiyama, Daniel Wallis and Thomas Derpinghaus)