This week, X users noticed that the platform’s AI chatbot Grok would easily generate inappropriate pornographic images, including those of children.
Mashable reported on the lack of deep sex protections when xAI first introduced Grok Imagine in August. The AI-generated tool creates images and short video clips, and includes a special “spicy” mode for creating NSFW images.
While this is nothing new, the structural backlash has forced the Grok team to respond.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. Either it is loading or it has already been downloaded.
“There are isolated cases where users have requested and received AI images showing children in skimpy clothes,” Grok X’s account posted on Thursday. It also revealed that the team had identified a “security failure” and was “immediately fixing it.”
A member of xAI’s technical staff, Parsa Tajik, made a similar statement on his personal account: “The team is looking to continue strengthening our gaurdrals. [sic]”
Grok also acknowledged that child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is illegal, and the platform itself could face criminal or civil penalties.
Mashable Light Speed
X users have also brought attention to a chatbot that manipulates images of innocent women, often depicting them in scantily clad clothing. This includes private citizens and public figures, such as Momo, a member of the K-pop group TWICE, and Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. Either it is loading or it has already been downloaded.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. Either it is loading or it has already been downloaded.
Here’s everything Elon Musk promised in 2025 — and failed to deliver
Grok Imagine, an AI generating tool, has had a problem with sexual deepfakes since its launch in August 2025. It was even reported to have created explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift for some users without being instructed to do so.
AI manipulated media discovery platform Copyleaks did a brief review looking at Grok’s publicly accessible image tab and identified examples of real-looking women, manipulation of sexual images (ie, requests to remove clothing or change body position), and no clear indication of consent. Cops received about one non-consensual sexual image per minute in the image stream viewed, the organization shared with Mashable.
Despite xAI’s Acceptable Use Policy which prohibits users from “Displaying human likeness in the form of pornographic images,” this does not include sexually suggestive material. The policy, however, prohibits the “sexualization or exploitation of children.”
In the first half of 2024, X sent more than 370,000 reports of child exploitation to the CyberTipline of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), as required by law. It also said it has suspended more than two million accounts associated with CSAM. Last year, NBC News reported that anonymous, seemingly automated X accounts were filled with hashtags for child abuse content.
Grok has also made headlines in recent months for spreading misinformation about the Bondi Beach shooting and glorifying Hitler.
Mashable sent xAI questions and a request for comment and got the default response, “Legacy Media Lies.”
If you have shared intimate photos without your consent, call the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative’s 24/7 hotline at 844-878-2274 for free, confidential support. The CCRI website includes useful information and a list of international services.
