Elon Musk’s Grok AI floods X with sexualised photos of women and minors
One expert says he warned that the AI chatbot was “a nudification tool waiting to be weaponised”.
By AJ Vicens and Raphael Satter
January 3, 2026 — 4.30pm
Washington/Detroit: Julie Yukari, a musician based in Rio de Janeiro, posted a photo taken by her fiance to the social media site X just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, showing her in a red dress, snuggling in bed with her black cat, Nori.
The next day, among the hundreds of likes on the picture, she saw notifications that users were asking Grok, X’s built-in artificial intelligence chatbot, to digitally strip her down to a bikini.
The original image posted by Julie Yukari that was altered with Grok AI. (Identity concealed)Credit: Julie Yukari / Instagram
The 31-year-old did not think much of it, she told Reuters, figuring there was no way the bot would comply with such requests.
She was wrong. Soon, Grok-generated pictures of her, nearly naked, were circulating across the Elon Musk-owned platform.
“I was naive,” Yukari said.
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Yukari’s experience is being repeated across X, a Reuters analysis has found. Reuters has also identified several cases where Grok created sexualised images of children.
X did not respond to a message seeking comment on Reuters’ findings.
In an earlier statement to the news agency about reports that sexualised images of children were circulating on the platform, X’s owner xAI said: “Legacy Media Lies.”
The flood of nearly nude images of real people has rung alarm bells internationally.
Ministers in France have reported X to prosecutors and regulators over the disturbing images, saying in a statement on Friday that the “sexual and sexist” content was “manifestly illegal”.
India’s IT ministry said in a letter to X’s local unit that the platform failed to prevent Grok’s misuse by generating and circulating obscene and sexually explicit content.
The US Federal Communications Commission did not respond to requests for comment. The Federal Trade Commission declined to comment.
Grok’s mass digital undressing spree appears to have kicked off over the past couple of days, according to successfully completed clothes-removal requests posted by Grok and complaints from female users reviewed by Reuters. Musk appeared to poke fun at the controversy on Friday, posting laugh-cry emojis in response to AI edits of famous people – including himself – in bikinis.
