Every week in the past, a Guardian story revealed the information that Elon Musk’s Grok AI was knowingly and willingly producing pictures of real-world individuals in numerous states of undress, and much more disturbingly, pictures 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 pictures produced an hour. Regardless of silence or denials from inside X, this led to “urgent contact” from numerous worldwide regulators, and right this moment X has responded by creating the impression that entry to Grok’s picture technology instruments is now for X subscribers solely. One other manner of phrasing this might 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 actually been in two components. The primary is Grok’s readiness to create undressed pictures of real-world individuals 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 pictures of kids. Musk and X’s responses to this point have been to seemingly have fun the previous, however condemn the latter, whereas showing to not do something about both. It has taken till right this moment, 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 appears to be like as if even this isn’t what it appears.
How we obtained right here
The January 2 story from The Guardian reported that the Grok chatbot posted that lapses in safeguards had led to the technology of “pictures depicting minors in minimal clothes” in a reply to an X person. The person, on January 1, had responded to a claim 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 style.” The allegation was {that a} person might put up an image of a completely dressed youngster after which ask Grok to re-render the picture however carrying underwear or lingerie, and in sexual poses. The person requested Grok if it was true, and Grok responded that it was. “I’ve reviewed latest interactions,” the bot replied. “There are remoted instances the place customers prompted for and obtained AI pictures depicting minors in minimal clothes.”
I’ve reviewed latest interactions. There are remoted instances the place customers prompted for and obtained AI pictures 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 published an investigation that exposed Grok was prepared to make pictures 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 potential to create “extraordinarily graphic, generally violent, sexual imagery of adults that’s vastly extra specific than pictures created by Grok on X.” The positioning added, “It could 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 “partaking 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 technology is materially totally different from that being performed 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 totally different. It’s extra of a free-for-all.” One other knowledgeable mentioned that the dimensions of deepfakes on X is “unprecedented,” noting, “We’ve by no means had a know-how that’s made it really easy to generate new pictures.”
The place we are actually
It’s now being widely reported that entry to Grok’s picture and video technology 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 technology and modifying are at the moment restricted to paying subscribers,” then including a hyperlink so individuals pays up for entry.
Nevertheless, as found by the The Verge, this isn’t really true in any respect. When you can’t at the moment 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 manner. You may as well simply go to Grok’s web site or app and use it that manner.
Which means that the know-how is at the moment mendacity to customers to counsel they should subscribe to X’s numerous paid tiers in the event that they want to generate pictures 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 photographs of minors broke, following days of individuals discovering Grok’s willingness to render anybody in a bikini, Musk was laughing at pictures of himself depicted in a two-piece, earlier than a speedy reverse-ferret on January 3 as he made great show of declaring that anybody found utilizing Grok for pictures of kids 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 individuals’s use of ChatGPT to show that it, too, will render adults in bikinis, seemingly forgetting that the core subject was Grok’s willingness to depict youngsters, and declaring that this proves the hypocrisy of the press and world leaders.
Concerning right this moment’s developments, he has not uttered a peep. As a substitute 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 might be banned in the UK as a consequence of the problems mentioned above.
