UltraViolet Condemns Grok AI’s Monetization of Sexualized Images of Women and Children, Demands Google and Apple Remove Grok App from Stores

For Immediate Release: January 9, 2025

Despite public outcry, Elon Musk’s Grok AI continues to allow paid users to generate sexualized images and videos of real people, including minors, without consent. Apple and Google must act to protect users.

UltraViolet, a leading national women-led gender-justice organization that works to hold the tech and corporate sectors accountable, released the following statement following reports that Elon Musk’s X has responded to outcry over its AI chatbot “Grok” being used as a tool of mass sexual abuse by only restricting image generation to “verified users” (other reports signal that the threadbare restrictions on free users access to image generation can be easily avoided):

“In the face of universal outrage and scrutiny, Elon Musk and his companies—X and xAI—have reached a new low in avoiding accountability,” said Jenna Sherman, Campaign Director at Ultraviolet. “Instead of taking down Grok’s image generation until user safety can be guaranteed, they’ve turned this tool of mass sexual abuse into a special perk for paid users.”

“Limiting the number of people who can create sexual deepfakes—including child sexual abuse material (CSAM)—does not change the fact that Grok is still being used to create this content. One act of illegal, nonconsensual sexualized image generation is too many. As it stands,everyone, but especially women and children, remain at risk of being subject to this abuse,” said Sherman.“Sexual abuse is not a premium service. It’s a crime. It’s clear that xAI is not taking the necessary actions to stop the generation of child sex abuse material (CSAM), and that companies like Apple and Google continue to facilitate it by keeping Grok and X on their app stores.”

Context:

In August 2025—two months after receiving widespread condemnation for Grok’s spewing of racial and anti-Semitic slurs and a month after the Pentagon announced a $200 million deal to use Grok—Musk’s company, xAI, launched what it called a “spicy” mode for the chatbot, allowing users to create pornographic images and videos by “declothing” random real people online. A widespread campaign of “digital undressing” and sexual abuse has ensued since, peaking in the last weeks. And while the majority of these AI-generated images target adult women, a number of them depict minors. This scandal comes just weeks after the U.S. military announced an agreement with xAI to integrate Grok into military systems. On January 9, reports surfaced that Musk had apparently limited usage of image generation to paid subscribers instead of taking Grok down or making substantial changes to the chatbot.

Ultraviolet, which worked to stop child abuse on online platforms like Roblox and campaigned against the Defense Department’s adoption of Grok, has released a new petition calling on Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Puchai to immediately remove Grok and X from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, respectively. The companies have previously banned apps “undressing” features like Grok’s, but have so far refused to take down the chatbot from their stores.

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UltraViolet Education Fund is a women-led gender justice 501c3 organization, with an online community of more than 1 million members nationwide. We combine organizing, technology, creative campaigning, and people power to win real-world changes for women and gender expansive people.

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