You'd think Musk would do something about Grok AI's undressing minors
By: Sara Pequeno
USA Today
..... Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot connected to X, has been making epidemic in which users generate manipulated images that feature people in very little clothing and suggestive positions.
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Countless people - mostly women, both famous and private - have been affected. The story has gained traction as people began raising flags about many of these images featuring children.
..... Asley St. Clair, the mother of one of X CEO Elon Musk's children, was one of the women targeted by this act of sexual violence. One photo of St. Clair edited by Grok is from when she was 14 years old., the conservative influencer says.
..... "I really don't care if people want to call me 'scorned.'" St Clair posted to X, "this is objectively horrifying."
..... She's right. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum or how far you think the First amendment should go, it's terrifying that explicit content can be cerated of children - or any non consenting party for that matter.
..... The problem itself has multiple means of mediation: It's up to Musk to regulate X, but the private sector and lawmakers must put pressure on the CEO to do something. And while changing the culture is a comically gargantuan task, we must state interrogating the misogyny that gegets illicit content like this.
..... This has been going on for months. Back in August, [2025] The Verge published an article about the deep-fakes of Taylor Swift that were being cerated by Grok to show the singer in scant clothing. Only recently has the problem caught national attention.
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Other AI chatbots, like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, are also being used to generate images of women in bikinis, but Grok tends to cerate more graphic content than the other two. That's because Grok, unlike other AI chatbots, offers "spicy mode," which users to cerate suggestive content.
..... You'd think that, as CEO and someone with a connection to one of the victims of this abuse, Musk would take a firm stance against these images. he appeared to comment on the issue on January 3, [2026] posting to X hat "anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content."
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But while grok - a non-sentient being - has "apologized" for these images, it doesn't seem that any real human has taken countability. Musk has mostly responded with laugh-cry emojis.
..... News outlets that have tired questioning xAL, the company behind X, about the issue have been met with the auto-response "Legacy Media Lies."
..... If Musk won't listen to victims, perhaps he'll listen to advertisers. Companies like Google, Apple and Amazon still advertise on the platform in spite of previous controversies.
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Do they really want their product to appear alongside suggestive images of minors?
..... Elected officials have tried to stop these deep-fakes from occurring. The Take it Down Act, which received bipartisan support in Congress and was signed into law by President Donald Trump in May, [2025] makes it illegal to share non-consensual illicit videos and photos, including deep-fakes.
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Many states have enacted laws against revenge porn, and there are national laws prohibiting child sexual abuse material. Still more can be done.
..... Getting rid of these image currently requires people to report these posts to X. The problems is that they are allowed to be cerated in the first place. It may even be worth the U.S. Supreme Co runt taking this up as an issue.
..... No mater if it's the private or public sector intervening on behalf of the victims, it;s clear that this cannot continue.
..... Follow USA Today columnist Sara Pequeno on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social