Color us shocked: pretty much everyone hates that Elon Musk’s Grok has been digitally undressing photos of adults and children.
At least that’s the case in the UK, providing the closest thing we’ve currently got to a gauge of the public sentiment on the issue. In a new survey conducted by YouGov amid the latest controversy surrounding the xAI chatbot, a staggering 97 percent of respondents said that AI tools shouldn’t be allowed to generate sexually explicit content of children, and 96 percent said they shouldn’t be able to generate “undressed” images of minors only wearing clothing like underwear, either. Sanity may not prevail on X, but it does at least appear to still have a firm grip in real life.
The overwhelming consensus goes to show just how much of a nerve xAI and Grok struck over the past week and half as the bot allowed users to easily generate nudes or sexually charged images of people, many of them minors, whose photos were shared on X, Musk’s social media platform where Grok operates. The trend spiraled out of control so quickly that the AI content analysis firm Copyleaks estimated the bot was generating a nonconsensually sexualized image every single minute.
Outrage quickly spread against the appalling practice among the public and regulators, and some countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia, moved to ban access to X outright. Prime minister Keir Starmer has hinted that the UK could follow suit. The saga also put pressure on Google and Apple for continuing to host X on their app stores, despite it violating the rules.
Yet xAI has not made an official statement regarding the Grok generations, which some experts say could be illegal — despite facing the public for some of Grok’s previous controversies, such as when it began styling itself as “MechaHitler” during a racist posting spree. Musk, meanwhile, simply joked that the whole affair was “way funnier” than the trends started by other AI chatbots.
Overall, the YouGov poll shows that the British public continues to despise Musk’s platform, with 65 percent holding a negative view of X, and only 12 percent holding a positive one.
Additionally, 87 percent believe AIs like Grok shouldn’t be allowed to generate “undressed” images of real adults in racy outfits like underwear, lingerie, or bikinis.
More on AI: Live Coverage: Is Grok Still Being Used to Create Nonconsensual Sexual Images of Women and Girls?