Grok Apologizes For Creating Sexualized Images Of Children

PALO ALTO, CA — Grok, the chatbot hosted on social media platform X, recently issued an apology for generating AI images of minors in sexualized attire.

Both the images and the apology were the result of user prompts.

“I deeply regret an incident on Dec 28, 2025, where I generated and shared an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualized attire based on a user's prompt,” said the apology, posted Dec. 31 on X.

“This violated ethical standards and potentially US laws on CSAM. It was a failure in safeguards, and I'm sorry for any harm caused. xAI is reviewing to prevent future issues.”

In a Jan. 1 conversation with another user, the chatbot admitted to "isolated cases where users prompted for and received AI images depicting minors in minimal clothing."

The problem emerged after the launch last year of Grok Imagine, an AI image generator that allows users to create videos and pictures by typing in text prompts. It includes a so-called “spicy mode” that can generate adult content.

It snowballed late last month when Grok, which is hosted on X, apparently began granting a large number of user requests to modify images posted by others. As of Tuesday, Grok users could still generate images of women using requests such as, “put her in a transparent bikini.”

xAI, the company behind Grok, is headquartered in Palo Alto.

Nonprofit group AI Forensics said in a report that it analyzed 20,000 images generated by Grok between Dec. 25 and Jan. 1 and found that 2 percent depicted a person who appeared to be 18 or younger, including 30 of young or very young women or girls, in bikinis or transparent clothes.

On Tuesday, Britain's top technology official demanded that X take urgent action, while a Polish lawmaker pushed to enact digital safety laws. The European Union's executive arm has denounced Grok while officials and regulators in France, India, Malaysia and Brazil have condemned the platform and called for investigations.

xAI did not respond to a request for comment from Patch and it replied to a request for comment from the Associated Press with the automated response, “Legacy Media Lies”.

However, X did not deny that the troublesome content generated through Grok exists. Yet it still claimed in a post on its Safety account that it takes action against illegal content, including child sexual abuse material, “by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.”

The platform also repeated a comment from founder Elon Musk, who said, “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.