Elon Musk watches as President Donald Trump speaks on the U.S.-Saudi Funding Discussion board on the John F. Kennedy Heart for the Performing Arts in Washington, Nov. 19, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Photos
Elon Musk’s xAI noticed consumer backlash after its synthetic intelligence chatbot Grok generated sexualized footage of kids in response to consumer prompts.
A Grok reply to 1 consumer on X on Friday acknowledged that it was “urgently fixing” the problem and known as little one sexual abuse materials “unlawful and prohibited.”
In replies to customers, the bot additionally posted that an organization might face felony or civil penalties if it knowingly facilitates or fails to forestall one of these content material after being alerted.
Grok posts are AI-generated messages and don’t stand in for official firm statements.
Musk’s xAI, which created Grok and merged with X final 12 months, despatched an autoreply to a request for remark: “Legacy Media Lies.”
Customers on X raised considerations in latest days over express content material of minors, together with kids carrying minimal clothes, being generated utilizing the Grok device.
The social media website added an “Edit Picture” button to pictures that permits any consumer to change it utilizing textual content prompts and with out the unique poster’s consent.
A publish from xAI technical workers member Parsa Tajik additionally acknowledged the problem.
“Hey! Thanks for flagging. The workforce is trying into additional tightening our gaurdrails,” Tajik wrote in a publish.
The proliferation of AI image-generating platforms for the reason that launch of ChatGPT in 2022 has raised considerations over content material manipulation and on-line security throughout the board. It is also contributed to an growing variety of platforms which have produced deepfake nudes of precise individuals.
David Thiel, a belief and security researcher who was a part of the now-disbanded Stanford Web Observatory, informed CNBC that completely different US legal guidelines typically prohibit the creation and distribution of sure express photos, together with these depicting little one sexual abuse, or non-consensual intimate photos.
Authorized determinations about AI-generated photos, like these produced by Grok, can hinge on particular particulars of the content material created and shared, he stated.
In a paper he co-authored known as “Generative ML and CSAM: Implications and Mitigations,” Stanford researchers famous that “the looks of a kid being abused has been enough for prosecution,” in precedent-setting instances within the US.
Whereas different chatbots have confronted related points, xAI has repeatedly landed in sizzling water for misuse or obvious flaws in Grok’s design or underlying expertise.
“There are a variety of issues firms might do to forestall their AI instruments getting used on this method,” Thiel stated, “An important on this case could be to take away the power to change user-uploaded photos. Permitting customers to change uploaded imagery is a recipe for NCII. Nudification has traditionally been the first use case of such mechanisms.”
NCII refers to non-consensual intimate photos.
In Might, X confronted a backlash after Grok generated unsolicited feedback about “white genocide” in South Africa. Two months later, Grok posted antisemitic feedback and praised Adolf Hitler.
Regardless of the stumbles, xAI has continued to land partnerships and offers.
The Division of Protection added Grok to its AI brokers platform final month, and the device is the primary chatbot for prediction betting platforms Polymarket and Kalshi.
