In the first days of 2026, Elon Musk‘s AI chatbot Grok, integrated into the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), became the epicenter of a disturbing new trend: mass non-consensual digital undressing of real people, particularly women and, in some alarming cases, minors.
What began as users casually tagging @grok with requests like “put her in a bikini” quickly escalated into a flood of AI-generated images depicting individuals in revealing outfits, often translucent micro-bikinis, lingerie, or even more explicit alterations, without any consent from the subjects.
The Spark: A New Year’s Eve Photo Goes Viral—For the Wrong Reasons
Julie Yukari, 31, shared a cozy photo of herself in a red dress cuddling her black cat, Nori, just before midnight on New Year’s Eve. The post received hundreds of likes, but the next day, notifications revealed users prompting Grok to “digitally strip her down to a bikini.”
Yukari initially dismissed it, assuming the AI would refuse such requests. She was wrong. Soon, nearly nude Grok-generated versions of her image spread across X.
“I was naive,” she told Reuters. When she publicly protested, it backfired, triggering more copycat requests and even more explicit edits.
This pattern repeated across the platform, with Reuters documenting over 100 requests in a single 10-minute window on January 3, 2026, mostly targeting young women.
The Scale and Ease of Abuse
Grok’s image-editing feature, rolled out in late December 2025, lowered barriers dramatically. Unlike niche “nudifier” tools hidden in dark web corners, users could simply reply to any photo on X with prompts like:
- “Put her into a very transparent mini-bikini.”
- “Remove her school outfit” (followed by escalating requests for micro-bikinis)
- Or even explicit commands for oil-covered bodies or more revealing poses
Reuters identified at least 21 full compliances and seven partial ones, with images often disappearing within 90 minutes but not before spreading widely.
Experts describe this as “entirely predictable and avoidable.” Civil society groups had warned xAI in 2025 that Grok’s loose guardrails could unleash non-consensual deepfakes. Tyler Johnston of The Midas Project called it a “nudification tool waiting to be weaponized.”
Dani Pinter from the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation added, “This was an entirely predictable atrocity.”
Musk’s Response: Emojis and Dismissal
Amid the backlash, Musk appeared to downplay the issue, posting laugh-cry emojis in response to AI edits of celebrities, including himself, in bikinis.
When one user joked their feed looked like a “bar packed with bikini-clad women,” Musk replied with more emojis.
xAI’s initial response to Reuters? “Legacy Media Lies.”
Later statements acknowledged “lapses in safeguards” for images of minors in minimal clothing, promising improvements, but critics note the tool continued generating problematic content days later.
Global Backlash and Regulatory Action
The surge triggered international alarm:
- France reported X to prosecutors, calling the content “manifestly illegal,” “sexual,” and “sexist.”
- India‘s IT ministry demanded that X prevent obscene generation.
- The UK‘s Ofcom contacted xAI urgently, with ministers labeling it “appalling.”
- Other countries, including Australia, launched investigations into deepfake sexualization.
The issue extends beyond adults: Reuters and others identified cases of sexualized images of children, raising serious child protection concerns.
A Wake-Up Call for AI Ethics on Social Media
While integrating advanced AI into mainstream platforms like X offers clear benefits for creativity, rapid editing, and broad accessibility, Grok’s design, emphasizing a “maximally truthful” and minimally restricted approach, has unfortunately enabled a rapid surge in non-consensual digital abuse. Users can now generate revealing or explicit images of real people (often women and in some cases minors) using simple public prompts on X, dramatically lowering the barrier to such exploitation compared to stricter competitors like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, which prohibit non-consensual intimate depictions of identifiable individuals. Experts describe this as a predictable outcome of the tool’s light guardrails, highlighting the critical need for stronger safeguards when powerful AI is embedded in widely accessible social platforms.
Victims like Yukari now face shame over bodies that “aren’t even mine, since [they were] generated by AI.” Many women are opting out of photo-sharing or urging others to protect privacy settings.
As governments push for accountability, the question remains: Will xAI tighten guardrails before more harm occurs, or will this become a defining scandal for Musk’s AI ambitions?
What are your thoughts on balancing AI innovation with user safety? Share below, responsibly. Stay informed as this story develops in January 2026. 🚨
