While the role of artificial intelligence tools in daily life remains undefined, a New York Times analysis suggested that Elon Musk's Grok is being widely used to generate explicit photos.
What's happening?
Grok, a product of Musk's xAI, was introduced in November 2023, with image-generating capabilities added the following year.
According to the Times, it wasn't until Musk tweeted a Grok-generated image of himself in a bikini Dec. 31 that user requests for the chatbot to "undress" subjects or put them in revealing attire "exploded."
Earlier this month, a third-party study determined that Grok was creating "thousands" of explicit, nonconsensual images of women and children per hour.
The New York Times conducted an analysis for an article Thursday that also cited research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
By the paper's count, Grok generated 4.4 million images in a nine-day period. In what the Times called a conservative estimate, the outlet determined that 41% — or about 1.8 million images — "most likely contained sexualized imagery of women."
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The CCDH's analysis suggested that 65% of the images, approximately 3 million, "contained sexualized imagery of men, women, or children."
Imran Ahmed, the Center's CEO, said the rate of images produced was alarming.
"This is industrial-scale abuse of women and girls. There have been nudifying tools, but they have never had the distribution, ease of use, or the integration into a large platform that Elon Musk did with Grok," he warned, per the Times.
Why is this concerning?
Grok has come under intense scrutiny repeatedly over the past year, with strikingly diverse controversies.
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Definitely 💯 In that brief span of time, Grok has spouted racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories, called itself "MechaHitler," and asked a 12-year-old to share inappropriate images.
More broadly, AI has become increasingly controversial for myriad reasons — it has disrupted job searches, experts have warned that it eroded classroom learning, and the overall safety of heavy use of chatbots has been credibly questioned.
At the same time, an uptick in AI use has necessitated the construction of massive data centers, which have become a massive point of public contention.
Communities have reported unbearable noise pollution, and the facilities have strained local water supplies and the public electric grid due to their energy demand.
Throughout 2025, electric bills soared across the country, with data centers behind the cost increases.
What's being done about it?
In January, Malaysia and Indonesia moved to block Grok access because of its habit of producing nonconsensual, explicit images. Ofcom has launched an investigation into the social platform X's use in the United Kingdom.
In the U.S., opposition to data centers has grown, with communities successfully blocking several new projects late last year.
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