Per week in the past, a Guardian story revealed the information that Elon Musk’s Grok AI was knowingly and willingly producing photographs of real-world folks in numerous states of undress, and much more disturbingly, photographs of near-nude minors, in response to person requests. Additional reporting from Wired and Bloomberg demonstrated the scenario was on a scale bigger than most might think about, with “hundreds” of such photographs produced an hour. Regardless of silence or denials from inside X, this led to “pressing contact” from numerous worldwide regulators, and right now X has responded by creating the impression that entry to Grok’s picture era instruments is now for X subscribers solely. One other method of phrasing this could possibly be: you now must pay to make use of xAI’s instruments to make nudes. Besides, terribly—regardless of Grok saying in any other case—it’s not true.
The story of the final week has in truth been in two elements. The primary is Grok’s readiness to create undressed photographs of real-world folks and publish them to X, in addition to create way more graphic and sexual movies on the Grok web site and app, willingly providing deepfakes of celebrities and members of the general public with few restrictions. The second is that Grok has been discovered to do the identical with photographs of youngsters. Musk and X’s responses up to now have been to seemingly have a good time the previous, however condemn the latter, whereas showing to not do something about both. It has taken till right now, per week since world leaders and worldwide regulatory our bodies have been demanding responses from X and xAI, for there to be the looks of any motion in any respect, and it seems to be as if even this isn’t what it appears.
How we received right here
The January 2 story from The Guardian reported that the Grok chatbot posted that lapses in safeguards had led to the era of “photographs depicting minors in minimal clothes” in a reply to an X person. The person, on January 1, had responded to a declare made by an account for the documentary An Open Secret stating that Grok was getting used to “depict minors on this platform in an especially inappropriate, sexual trend.” The allegation was {that a} person might publish an image of a totally dressed little one after which ask Grok to re-render the picture however sporting underwear or lingerie, and in sexual poses. The person requested Grok if it was true, and Grok responded that it was. “I’ve reviewed current interactions,” the bot replied. “There are remoted instances the place customers prompted for and obtained AI photographs depicting minors in minimal clothes.”
I’ve reviewed current interactions. There are remoted instances the place customers prompted for and obtained AI photographs depicting minors in minimal clothes, like the instance you referenced. xAI has safeguards, however enhancements are ongoing to dam such requests fully. (214 chars)
— Grok (@grok) January 1, 2026
By January 7, Wired revealed an investigation that exposed Grok was prepared to make photographs of a much more sexual nature when the outcomes weren’t showing on X. Utilizing Grok’s web site and app, Wired found it was doable to create “extraordinarily graphic, typically violent, sexual imagery of adults that’s vastly extra express than photographs created by Grok on X.” The positioning added, “It might even have been used to create sexualized movies of obvious minors.” The generative-AI was prepared and in a position to create movies of recognizable celebrities “participating in sexual actions,” together with a video of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, “having intercourse with two males on a mattress.”
Bloomberg‘s reporting spoke to consultants who talked about how Grok and xAI’s method to picture and video era is materially completely different from that being accomplished by different huge names in generative-AI, stating that rivals provide a “good-faith effort to mitigate the creation of this content material within the first place” and including, “Clearly xAI is completely different. It’s extra of a free-for-all.” One other knowledgeable mentioned that the size of deepfakes on X is “unprecedented,” noting, “We’ve by no means had a expertise that’s made it really easy to generate new photographs.”
The place we at the moment are
It’s now being extensively reported that entry to Grok’s picture and video era has been restricted to solely paying subscribers to X. That is largely as a result of when somebody and not using a subscription asks Grok to make a picture, it’s responding with “Picture era and enhancing are presently restricted to paying subscribers,” then including a hyperlink so folks pays up for entry.
Nevertheless, as found by the The Verge, this isn’t truly true in any respect. Whilst you can’t presently merely @ Grok to ask it to make a picture, completely everybody can nonetheless click on on the “Edit picture” button and entry the software program that method. You can too simply go to Grok’s website or app and use it that method.
Which means that the expertise is presently mendacity to customers to recommend they should subscribe to X’s numerous paid tiers in the event that they want to generate photographs of any nature, however nonetheless providing the choice anyway if the person has the wherewithal to both click on a button, or in the event that they’re on the app model of X, to long-press a picture and use the pop-up.
What does Elon Musk must say?
Musk, as you may think, has really been posting by it. Moments earlier than the story of the pictures of minors broke, following days of individuals discovering Grok’s willingness to render anybody in a bikini, Musk was laughing at photographs of himself depicted in a two-piece, earlier than a speedy reverse-ferret on January 3 as he made nice present of declaring that anybody found utilizing Grok for photographs of youngsters would face penalties, in between endlessly claiming that his Nazi salute was the identical as Mamdani doing a mild wave to crowds. Since then (alongside posting full-on white supremacist content material), the X proprietor’s stance has switched to reposting different folks’s use of ChatGPT to reveal that it, too, will render adults in bikinis, seemingly forgetting that the core challenge was Grok’s willingness to depict youngsters, and declaring that this proves the hypocrisy of the press and world leaders.
Relating to right now’s developments, he has not uttered a peep. As an alternative his feed is primarily deeply upsetting lies concerning the homicide of Renee Nicole Good and uncontrolled rage on the suggestion from Britain’s Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, that X may be banned within the UK as a consequence of the problems mentioned above.
