X proprietor Elon Musk likes to mission a picture of himself as a insurgent and a maverick of the enterprise world who thumbs his nostril to regulation, and is totally different from upper-class boardroom sorts. But, even Musk has to abide by the foundations, and in response to a brand new report from NBC Information, Musk’s fixed boundary pushing virtually received his synthetic intelligence app Grok banned from the App Retailer earlier this 12 months, in a transfer that would have sunk X’s future prospects.
As reported by NBC: “Apple privately threatened to take away Elon Musk’s synthetic intelligence app, Grok, from its App Retailer in January after Musk’s xAI didn’t do sufficient to cease it from creating nude or sexualized deepfakes, Apple instructed senators in a letter that was obtained by NBC Information.”
The Grok deepfake scandal continues to be set to value X tens of millions in fines because of the pattern of customers utilizing Musk’s Grok AI chatbot to digitally strip down pictures of individuals within the app.
Which Musk initially argued was acceptable, saying that loads of different AI platforms facilitate the identical, and that X was solely being focused for enforcement as a result of it permits free speech and the elites are afraid of this.
Nevertheless, whereas different AI nudification apps exist, all of them are below restrictions or investigation. The priority in Grok’s case was the dimensions and attain of X, and the way a lot of X’s person base was taking over this regarding pattern.
According to analysis commissioned by Bloomberg, Grok, at one stage early in 2026, was producing greater than 6,700 pictures each hour that might be categorized as “sexually suggestive of nudifying.”
But, Musk remained defiant, not less than initially, and stated on X that the criticism of Grok was one other “excuse for censorship” of the app.
Then in mid-January, Musk will need to have received the decision from Apple informing him that Grok may very well be banned, at which level, the corporate modified tack, and X revised Grok’s code to restrict its nudification capability.
Does that imply that X has fully addressed this factor, and that Grok will now not allow customers to provide offensive pictures of this kind?
Apparently not. In accordance with reviews, whereas X has restricted picture era and blocked sure prompts, thus limiting the potential for individuals to provide nude pictures, it’s nonetheless doable to get Grok to generate nude pictures of individuals.
A separate investigation printed by NBC Information this week discovered “dozens of AI-generated sexual pictures and movies depicting actual individuals posted publicly on Musk’s social media app, X, over the previous month.” In accordance with the report, the generated pictures depict ladies “whose likenesses have been edited by the AI chatbot to place them in additional revealing clothes, akin to towels, sports activities bras, skintight Spider-Lady outfits or bunny costumes.” NBC reported that most of the ladies featured in these depictions are feminine pop stars or actors.
So whereas X stated it restricted the injury and restricted this as an possibility, it’s nonetheless doable to make use of its Grok chatbot to generate offensive, doubtlessly dangerous pictures.
Which Elon Musk appears to be largely in help of. Musk additionally oversaw the event of AI-powered NSFW chatbots within the app and commonly re-posts AI-generated depictions of younger ladies on his personal profile.
This, mixed along with his preliminary protection of X customers’ proper to have the ability to generate pretend nudes, means that Musk views nudification as a viable utilization of the corporate’s AI instruments and a possible means to drive engagement.
It appears problematic that Musk is wanting to make use of this as a approach to increase X utilization, contemplating the app has greater than 500 million energetic customers, and as such, has important capability to amplify dangerous depictions of individuals and occasions.
X itself has acknowledged this. Final month, X’s Head of Product Nikita Bier stated his staff was working to deal with AI-generated deepfakes associated to the battle in Iran, with a view to defend the integrity of the platform.
Does that reach to the impression of deepfake nudes and the way they might hurt people?
It stays a contentious concern, and one which may nonetheless find yourself costing X considerably, whilst it really works to advertise expanded utilization of its AI instruments.
It’s not but clear what sort of potential hurt AI instruments may cause, neither is it clear what sort of psychological impacts these instruments may have on victims. But, individuals like Musk are pushing forward with AI growth with a view to win a perceived race in opposition to different billionaires who’re investing in the identical.
Ultimately, common individuals may find yourself being the casualties of this tech conflict, and folks like Musk have proven little regard for this facet.
