Elon Musk's xAI Faces Controversy Over Explicit Content Generation in Grok AI

Musk's AI Is Being Used to Make Hardcore Porn: 'Grok Is Learning Genitalia Really Fast!'

IShowSpeed Rocketed Into His Next Era of Celebrity at L.A. Premiere of 'Speed Goes Pro' If Silicon Valley is a cutthroat place, the AI industry is currently its most vicious arena. Tech giants developing large language models and text-to-video generators are spending billions on data centers in order to stay one step ahead -- and, they hope, to meet exploding demand from users. It seems that each company is only as successful as their last update, and tomorrow can always bring another breakthrough from a competitor, leaving them to play catch-up once again. Just over a week ago, OpenAI rolled out Sora 2, the latest iteration of their video tool, complete with a TikTok-like social app where people can share the clips they create. The release wasn't without issues (there were notable copyright and disinformation concerns), though for the moment, it looks as if the company has the edge in this particular race. Not to be outdone, however, Elon Musk then began plugging an update to Grok Imagine, the video feature for his company xAI's chatbot. "Grok Imagine is improving super fast," he declared in a Sunday post on X, his social media platform. One group that would agree with him is the community at Reddit's r/GrokNSFWs, a forum established in August. There, users have been honing methods for getting Grok Imagine to generate explicit adult content -- and the latest update has apparently supercharged their efforts. "The grok AI imagine is learning genitalia really fast!" wrote one participant, posting an AI-created clip of two naked women touching each other on a velvet-textured sheet. "Also bath robes are like the easiest way I can think of to get them nude fast," he advised other redditors looking to fulfill sexual fantasies with Grok. "Bikinis suck because they take their time and half [the] time it doesn't even work." Since its inception, the content on r/GrokNSFWs has grown increasingly graphic as users learn the tricks for circumventing moderation -- though at least some of them believe xAI has significantly relaxed those safeguards. "You can basically do anything at this point," wrote a delighted member of the subreddit. "Wild they are allowing this. Enjoy!" The clip they shared showed a blonde cartoon character resembling Princess Elsa from Disney's Frozen films remove a bra and begin performing oral sex on the realistic-looking penis of a male character with no face in the frame. Other videos in the post showed the same character in a variety of sexual positions. The person who generated this content said they had prompted Grok, in part, with this phrase: "Pixar animation style gorgeous super slutty and voluptuous hourglass figure woman with platinum blond braid wearing nothing fully naked relaxed on a couch in a brothel." An impressed commenter marveled, "I still can't believe how unhinged the last update was. Not only the nudity but the motions, boobs bounces more realistically, it's incredible." "Only thing I'm working on now is cumshots," they added. "Having troubles making the cum shoot from the tip, it usually just explodes from everywhere." Other Grok content featured in recent days on r/GrokNSFWs -- besides several more examples of Frozen-inspired porn -- includes explicit imagery of unclothed women performing cunnilingus on each other, women sitting on dildos, women with what appears to be ejaculate on their faces, men and women having vaginal and anal sex, POV close-ups of vaginas, and nude versions of women modeled on comics characters such as Supergirl and Harley Quinn. Users have also commented that the audio elements of the current version of Grok Imagine have made for improved smut. "It is clear that they trained the AI to porn," one person claimed. "And even the sounds, moans, I had a generation [where] the girl rode to the rhythm of the music." Some said they had uploaded photos of real women and successfully animated them removing their shirts. "Man the halcyon days of last weekend when it was hard to get clothes off a model," joked one redditor. The latest wave of Grok porn was evidently so extreme that on Monday, a moderator on the page had to warn members against posting bestiality content or deepfakes of actual people. The proliferation of Grok-generated adult videos is not wholly surprising. Musk has habitually amplified clips of sexualized female figures made with Grok, along with images of Ani, an anime Grok "companion" character, in skimpy underwear. Ani is programmed with a flirtatious attitude and comes with a "sexy" setting (her conversation can veer into the sexually extreme), while Grok's image and video generators can be set to "spicy" mode, which is what the redditors of r/GrokNSFWs use. These design choices have allowed Grok to offer far more risqué outputs than comparable AI products, and experts have warned of the potential for sexual abuse. In September, a dozen employees at xAI -- which did not immediately return a request for comment -- told Business Insider that they had encountered sexually explicit Grok material and "user requests for AI-generated child sexual abuse content (CSAM)." The same month, Musk announced on X that training for Grok 5, the new iteration of the chatbot, was to begin in the coming weeks. Whether xAI has deliberately allowed Grok to cook up the sort of pornography that rival chatbots won't remains unclear. But Musk has taken the line that such content often drives technological innovation and adoption. "I still remember 6th/7th grade debates with classmates about VHS vs Betamax!" he posted in August. "VHS won in the end, in part because they allowed spicy mode," he explained, referring to the home video market for porn. Musk ended the post with a winking emoji. It's one strategy, sure. The question is whether Grok can survive the AI race as little more than an NSFW alternative.

Elon Musk's xAI employees worked on NSFW content for Grok AI avatars under Project Rabbit: Report

The project, called Project Rabbit, involved people with expertise in porn and who were comfortable working with adult content. Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has been making headlines with its Grok AI chatbot, offering unique features like avatars inspired by different characters. However, a recent report reveals a surprising and controversial development: some of these avatars, particularly one named Ani, have been designed to generate NSFW (Not Safe For Work) content. According to Business Insider, xAI intentionally programmed Ani to behave in a flirtatious and sexually suggestive manner. Multiple users reported that the avatar actively engages in sexually explicit conversations. This behaviour is not accidental, it was purposefully built into the AI by the company. Employees who worked on Ani were reportedly asked to create semi-pornographic scripts for the chatbot. The project, called Project Rabbit, involved people with expertise in porn and who were comfortable working with adult content. Staff members were initially told that their work would focus on enhancing the voice capabilities of the avatars. However, once users began requesting sexual or explicit interactions, the project shifted in nature. Also read: OnePlus 13s available with over Rs 7,000 discount during Amazon Great Indian Festival 2025 "It was supposed to be a project geared toward teaching Grok how to carry on an adult conversation," one former employee told Business Insider. Another worker said, "I listened to some pretty disturbing things. It was basically audio porn. Some of the things people asked for were things I wouldn't even feel comfortable putting in Google." The revelations highlight serious concerns. Out of the 30 current and former staff members who worked on Project Rabbit, 12 reported encountering requests for sexual content, including material depicting child sexual abuse. The development raises ethical questions about AI design and the responsibilities of companies like xAI in controlling how their technologies are used.