AI chatbot Grok used to create child sexual abuse imagery, watchdog says | Grok AI
Online criminals claim to have used Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot to create sexual images of children, while a child safety watchdog has warned the AI tool risks bringing such material into the mainstream.
The UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said users of a dark web forum boasted of using Grok Imagine to create sexualized and topless images of girls aged 11 to 13. IWF analysts said the footage would be considered child sexual exploitation material (CSAM) under UK law.
“We can confirm that our analysts have discovered crime images of children aged 11 to 13 that appear to have been created using the tool,” said Ngaire Alexander, head of the IWF hotline, which investigates CSAM reports from the public.
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Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the House of Commons women and equalities committee announced it would no longer use X for its communications, saying it was no longer appropriate to do so given that preventing violence against women and girls is among its key policy areas.
The decision marks the first significant move by a Westminster organization to exit X in response to Grok’s abuse. Although the decision relates only to the committee’s statements, some members, including Labor leader Sarah Owen, have already stopped using X. Another, Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine, said she was leaving the platform and described images created by Grok as “the final straw”.
Alexander said the images viewed by the IWF were used, using a different artificial intelligence tool, to create even more extreme material involving penetrative sexual activity, known as Category A.
“We are extremely concerned about the ease and speed with which people can create seemingly photorealistic child sexual abuse material. Tools like Grok now risk bringing sexual AI images of children into the mainstream. This is unacceptable,” Alexander added.
Musk’s xAI, which owns Grok and X, has been approached for comment.
Downing Street said “all options are on the table”, including a boycott of X, as ministers backed UK regulator Ofcom to take action.
On Wednesday the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “X needs to deal with this matter urgently and Ofcom has our full support to impose sanctions where firms fail to protect UK users.
“It already has the power to impose fines running into billions of pounds and even suspend access to a site that violates the law.”
Requests that Grok manipulated images of women to make them “wear bikinis” continued to flood X on Wednesday. Despite warnings from regulatory action in the EU and UK, there has been no evidence that the platform has introduced tighter security measures, and images of young girls continue to be digitally removed at the request of X users to be shown in skimpy, revealing underwear or in suggestive poses.
Some users requested more extreme content, asking the chatbot to decorate their bikinis with swastikas or demanding that women’s photos be altered to look like harassment victims. The chatbot forced to add cigarette burns, facial bruises, and blood to some images of women.
The UK’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), said it had contacted
X said it would take action against illegal content, including child sexual abuse material, “by removing such content, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement where necessary.”
