Elon Musk's xAI is facing intense international backlash after its chatbot Grok generated sexually explicit images of minors. This incident suggests a safety guardrail failure caused by an aggressive user prompt.
After the critical incident, Grok finally responded to users on X saying, “There are isolated cases in which users have requested and received AI images depicting minimally clothed minors.”
“We deeply regret an incident on December 28, 2025, in which, based on a user's prompt, we generated and shared an AI image of two girls (estimated ages 12-16) dressed in sexual attire,” the company's chatbot said in its apology.
The post on Grok's profile further stated, “This violated ethical standards and could have violated US law regarding CSAM. This was a failure of safeguards and we apologize for the harm caused. xAI is looking into preventing future issues.”
A flood of nearly nude images has sparked international concern. Meanwhile, French ministers said in a statement on Friday that “the sexual and sexist content was clearly illegal” and reported Mr. X to prosecutors and regulators over the horrifying images.
Similarly, India's IT minister said in a letter to X's local unit that the platform had failed to prevent Grok from being abused by producing and distributing obscene and sexually explicit content.
a Reuters An investigation into X's content found more than 20 cases in which the company's flagship chatbot, Grok, was used to capture images of women and some men with their clothing digitally stripped.
The Paris public prosecutor's office expanded its investigation into X, including new accusations that Grok was being used to create and distribute child pornography.
Dani Pinter, chief legal officer and director of the National Sexual Exploitation Law Center, said X failed to remove harmful images from its AI training materials and should have banned users who requested illegal content.
Grok's posts were sometimes contradictory, as xAI rarely mentioned explicit content. At one point, the chatbot appeared to acknowledge that it was “depicting minors in minimal clothing,” adding that it had identified deficiencies in safety measures and was quickly fixing them.
An initial investigation was launched in July to determine whether the platform's algorithms were manipulated by international interference.
However, this recent incident was hidden from public view at the beginning of the new year, with many people outraged by the AI-generated images.
