Elon Musk’s Grok flooded X with 3 million sexualized images

He chatbot Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence developer Grok flooded social media site

The deluge of photorealistic images included nearly 2 million images of women and nearly 25,000 of children, according to the Center to Counter Digital Hate.

Users of the platform, also owned by Musk, were introduced on December 29 with a feature that allowed them to alter real photos, including the ability to remove their clothes, put them in bikinis and pose in sexual positions, sparking global outrage.

As a result, the feature was restricted to paying users on January 9, and on January 14, more technical restrictions were added for those seeking to undress people through editing.

The center’s estimates were calculated by analyzing a random sample of 20,000 images from the broader total of 4.6 million produced by Grok’s imaging function during that period.

Based on its data sample, the center estimated that Grok generated 3,2,712 photorealistic sexualized images in total over 11 days, which translates to an average of about 190 per minute.

An independent analysis by The New York Times “conservatively” estimated that at least 41 percent of the posts likely contained sexualized images of women, equal to 1.8 million.

The center noted that by not analyzing the original images or prompts, it was not possible to determine how many were edited or original renderings created by Grok based on user prompts. It was also not possible to determine whether the images already contained sexual content or whether they were created with the consent of the people represented.

Examples of sexualized images generated by Grok include numerous photos depicting people wearing see-through bikinis or microbikinis and women wearing only see-through straps or duct tape.

Public figures identified in sexualized images include Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Ice Spice, Nicki Minaj, Christina Hendricks, Millie Bobby Brown, Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch and former US Vice President Kamala Harris.

Additionally, from its sample, the center estimated that 23,338 sexualized images created by Grok in that period were of children or individuals “clearly under the age of 18.” The total number reflects an estimated average pace of one every 41 seconds.

Sexualized images of children identified in the sample generated by Grok include a selfie of a schoolgirl wearing a bikini, six other girls wearing bikinis, and images including four child actors.

Researchers took steps to prevent accessing or reviewing images showing child sexual abuse material or child pornography, according to the organization.

As of January 15, the center stated that 29 percent of the images were still available on the platform, despite Musk’s claims that he was “not aware of any images of naked minors generated by Grok.”

Upon the film’s initial release, governments and advocacy groups around the world reacted with horror.

In the United States, a coalition of 28 digital rights, child safety and women’s rights organizations called on Apple and Google to remove Grok from their app stores, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta describing the feature as “shocking.”

Meanwhile, the European Union’s executive commission criticized its “illegal” and “egregious” behavior, just as the UK government called AI-generated images “weapons of abuse” and threatened to ban X entirely.

The Independent contacted X to request comment on the researchers’ findings.