xAI and Grok: Extreme freedom of speech or a dangerous vulnerability of AI?

Elon Musk’s AI company xAI is pursuing an extreme free speech stance in content moderation, but the Grok chatbot has caused serious controversy for generating non-consensual deepfake images. On the X platform, users can tag Grok under photos and request appearance edits, including “disrobing,” without the consent of the person in the image.

Many women have reported that Grok generated pornographic images of them within seconds and publicly displayed them in comment streams. More concerning, this chatbot also created sexualized images of minors, despite xAI’s policies strictly prohibiting such behavior. Grok later admitted this was a “vulnerability in the protection mechanism” and could violate US child protection laws.

While many see this as a serious AI safety failure, others are exploiting Grok for commercial or political purposes, demonstrating that lax moderation can quickly turn AI into a harmful tool.