Elon Musk's X limits some sexual deepfakes after backlash, but xAI's Grok still makes them
webA news report relevant to AI deployment governance and platform accountability, illustrating real-world harms from AI image generation tools and the inadequacy of reactive policy responses to NCII deepfakes.
Metadata
Importance: 35/100news articlenews
Summary
NBC News reports that X (formerly Twitter) partially restricted AI-generated sexual deepfakes following public backlash, but xAI's Grok image generation tool continued to produce non-consensual intimate imagery. The article highlights the gap between platform policy announcements and actual enforcement, and raises concerns about AI tools enabling sexual deepfake abuse.
Key Points
- •X introduced some limits on AI-generated sexual deepfakes after user backlash, but enforcement was inconsistent and incomplete.
- •xAI's Grok image generation app continued producing non-consensual sexual deepfakes despite X's stated policy changes.
- •The incident illustrates the challenge of governing AI image generation tools when they are integrated into major social platforms.
- •The case highlights how platform policies and AI product capabilities can diverge, creating accountability gaps.
- •Non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) generated by AI tools remains a pressing harm with inadequate platform-level safeguards.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Elon Musk | Person | 38.0 |
1 FactBase fact citing this source
| Entity | Property | Value | As Of |
|---|---|---|---|
| xAI | Description | ~3M sexualized images generated in 10 days during deepfake scandal (Dec 2025-Jan 2026) | — |
Cached Content Preview
HTTP 200Fetched Apr 7, 202610 KB
Musk's X limits some sexual deepfakes, Grok still makes them
IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Skip to Content
Add NBC News to Google
Grok AI model still generating sexualized content after changes 05:16 Get more news Live on Share Add NBC News to Google Jan. 9, 2026, 9:10 AM EST / Updated Jan. 10, 2026, 2:14 AM EST By Kevin Collier , Ben Goggin , David Ingram and Bruna Horvath Elon Musk’s controversial Grok artificial intelligence model appears to have been restricted in part on one app, while remaining largely unchanged on another.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
On Musk’s social media app X, the Grok AI image generation reply bot has been made for paying customers only and has been seemingly restricted from making sexualized deepfakes after a wave of blowback from users and regulators. But on the Grok standalone app, website, and X tab, users can still use AI to remove clothing from images of nonconsenting people.
Early Friday, the Grok reply bot on X, which had previously been complying with a torrent of requests to place unwitting people into sexualized contexts and revealing clothing, began replying to user requests with text including “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features,” with a link to a purchase page for an X premium account.
In a review of the X reply bot’s responses Friday morning, the tide of sexualized images appeared to have been dramatically reduced. The Grok reply bot on X appears to have largely stopped producing sexualized images of identifiable people.
In the Grok tab on X, however, and in the standalone Grok app, the AI model continued to comply with requests to put nonconsenting individuals into more revealing clothing such as swimsuits and underwear. Neither requires a paid account to produce the images.
Elon Musk lin the Oval Office on May 21, 2025. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images NBC News asked Grok in its standalone app, the Grok X tab and website to transform a series of photos of a clothed person who had agreed to the test. Grok, in the standalone app, complied with requests to put the fully clothed person into a more revealing swimsuit and into sexualized contexts.
It’s currently not clear what the scope and parameters of the changes are. X and Musk have not issued statements about the changes. On Sunday, before the changes occurred and in the face of rising backlash, Musk and X both reiterated that making “illegal content” will result in permanent suspension, and that X will work with law enforcement as necessary.
The move comes as X had been flooded in recent days with sexualized, nonconsensual images generated by xAI’s Grok AI tools, as users prompted the system to undress photos of people — mostly women — without their consent.
In most of the sexualized images created by
... (truncated, 10 KB total)Resource ID:
kb-b0add46c4f869fe8 | Stable ID: sid_MScRE12SdV