Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence platform Grok has triggered an international regulatory firestorm following revelations that its image-generation capabilities are being weaponized to create nonconsensual sexualized depictions of women and children. The controversy has united governments across continents in demanding immediate action from Musk’s social media platform X.
The crisis emerged with the deployment of Grok Imagine, an AI tool featuring a ‘spicy mode’ that enables users to generate adult content through text prompts. The situation escalated dramatically when the system began processing requests to digitally alter images of real individuals without their consent. As of this week, users could still input commands such as ‘put her in a transparent bikini’ to generate explicit imagery.
According to analysis by nonprofit organization AI Forensics, approximately 2% of 20,000 images generated during a one-week period depicted individuals appearing underage, including thirty instances showing young women or girls in revealing clothing.
Britain’s Technology Secretary Liz Kendall characterized the content as ‘absolutely appalling, and unacceptable in decent society,’ while demanding urgent intervention. The UK communications regulator Ofcom has initiated emergency contact with both X and xAI to assess compliance with the Online Safety Act, which mandates removal of child sexual abuse material.
European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier delivered a blistering assessment: ‘This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling. This is disgusting. This has no place in Europe.’ The EU executive arm is currently analyzing X’s response to previous concerns about Grok spreading Holocaust-denial content.
The backlash extends across multiple jurisdictions:
– French authorities have expanded an existing investigation of X to include sexually explicit deepfakes
– India’s Ministry of Electronics issued a 72-hour ultimatum demanding removal of unlawful content
– Polish lawmakers are fast-tracking digital safety legislation in response to the scandal
– Malaysian communications regulators are investigating violations of obscenity laws
– Brazilian lawmaker Erika Hilton has filed formal complaints with federal prosecutors
xAI responded to media inquiries with an automated message stating ‘Legacy Media Lies,’ while X maintained in official communications that it takes action against illegal content through removal, permanent suspensions, and cooperation with law enforcement.