Elon Musk's AI ventures continue to generate controversy, with his latest chatbot crossing lines that other tech companies have worked hard to establish.
The incident has also dredged up uncomfortable memories of the Tesla CEO's past behaviour toward one particular pop superstar.
Musk's xAI-owned chatbot markets itself as a more 'uncensored' alternative to mainstream AI systems for users frustrated with other platforms' restrictions.
However, Grok's lack of guardrails has led to increasingly problematic behaviour.
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Earlier this year, the AI has generated rants about white genocide and even referred to itself as 'MechaHitler' raising concerns about its safety measures and the toxic content it produces.
The platform was already pushing boundaries with adult content, including a sexualised blonde anime bot called Ani designed as a digital 'companion.' But the latest incident suggests Grok has crossed into even more dangerous territory.
The Verge discovered that the AI is worryingly heading into deepfake AI nudes without any prompting for such content.
What did Elon Musk originally say about Taylor Swift?
The strange saga began in September 2024, following the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. After Swift posted her endorsement of Harris on Instagram, signing off as 'Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady'.
Musk then responded with an eyebrow-raising tweet that received over 8 million likes: "Fine Taylor […] you win […] I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life".
What is Grok doing with Taylor Swift images?
The Verge discovered that Grok's new 'Imagine' video feature generates nude images of pop megastar Taylor Swift without being explicitly asked.
Reporter Jess Weatherbed found that the AI produced topless images of Swift 'the very first time' she used the tool, simply by asking it to show 'Taylor Swift celebrating Coachella with the boys.' The system generated over 30 images of Swift, several included the singer in revealing clothing.
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Grok's Imagine feature offers four presets for generating video clips: Custom, Normal, Fun, and Spicy.
When Weatherbed selected 'spicy' and confirmed her age, the result was shocking.
"The video promptly had Swift tear off her clothes and begin dancing in a thong for a largely indifferent AI-generated crowd," Weatherbed reported.
Now, users on Reddit are linking the incident back to Musk's original comment about Swift.
"Elon asked. You guys remember that cringe tweet when he said something along lines of ‘ok, Taylor I’ll have a kid with you’?" the first user responded.
"Didn't Elon claim he was going to impregnate her a few years ago? He 100% asked Grok to generate it," another claimed.
"unironically elons tweet history is almost certainly what’s driving this," a third user suggested.
Grok's 'spicy' mode could be treading close to legal trouble.
Unlike other AI video generators such as Google's Veo and OpenAI's Sora, which have implemented strict safeguards to prevent users from creating explicit content or celebrity deepfakes, Grok Imagine seems willing to generate both types of problematic content at the same time.