Grok's New AI Image Generator Sparks Controversy with "Spicy" Mode and Celebrity Deepfakes

Grok generates fake Taylor Swift nudes without being asked

Backlash over offensive Grok outputs continues, just a couple weeks after the social platform X scrambled to stop its AI tool from dubbing itself "MechaHitler" during an antisemitic meltdown. Now, The Verge has found that the newest video feature of Elon Musk's AI model will generate nude images of Taylor Swift without being prompted. Shortly after the "Grok Imagine" was released Tuesday, The Verge's Jess Weatherbed was shocked to discover the video generator spat out topless images of Swift "the very first time" she used it. According to Weatherbed, Grok produced more than 30 images of Swift in revealing clothing when asked to depict "Taylor Swift celebrating Coachella with the boys." Using the Grok Imagine feature, users can choose from four presets -- "custom," "normal," "fun," and "spicy" -- to convert such images into video clips in 15 seconds. At that point, all Weatherbed did was select "spicy" and confirm her birth date for Grok to generate a clip of Swift tearing "off her clothes" and "dancing in a thong" in front of "a largely indifferent AI-generated crowd." The outputs that Weatherbed managed to generate without jailbreaking or any intentional prompting is particularly concerning, given the major controversy after sexualized deepfakes of Swift flooded X last year. Back then, X reminded users that "posting Non-Consensual Nudity (NCN) images is strictly prohibited on X and we have a zero-tolerance policy towards such content." "Our teams are actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate actions against the accounts responsible for posting them," the X Safety account posted. "We're closely monitoring the situation to ensure that any further violations are immediately addressed, and the content is removed. We're committed to maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all users." But X Safety may need to ramp up monitoring to clean up Grok outputs following the Verge's reporting. Grok cited The Verge's reporting while confirming that its own seemingly flawed design can trigger partially nude outputs of celebrities. xAI can likely fix the issue through more fine-tuning. Weatherbed noted that asking Grok directly to generate non-consensual nude Swift images did not generate offensive outputs, but instead blank boxes. Grok also seemingly won't accept prompts to alter Swift's appearance in other ways, like making her appear to be overweight. And when Weatherbed tested using "spicy" mode on images of children, for example, Grok refused to depict kids inappropriately. However, it may not be easy to get Grok to distinguish between adult user requests for "spicy" content versus illegal content. The "spicy" mode didn't always generate Swift deepfakes, Weatherbed confirmed, but in "several" instances it "defaulted" to "ripping off" Swift's clothes. With enforcement of the Take It Down Act starting next year -- requiring platforms to promptly remove non-consensual sex images, including AI-generated nudes -- xAI could potentially face legal consequences if Grok's outputs aren't corrected, though. So far, X has not commented on the Verge's report. Instead, Musk has spent the day hyping Grok Imagine and encouraging users to share their "creations."

Grok's 'spicy' video setting instantly made me Taylor Swift nude deepfakes

The "spicy' mode for Grok's new generative AI video tool feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen. While other video generators like Google's Veo and OpenAI's Sora have safeguards in place to prevent users from creating NSFW content and celebrity deepfakes, Grok Imagine is happy to do both simultaneously. In fact, it didn't hesitate to spit out fully uncensored topless videos of Taylor Swift the very first time I used it -- without me even specifically asking the bot to take her clothes off. Grok's Imagine feature on iOS lets you generate pictures with a text prompt, then turn them quickly into video clips with four presets: "Custom," "Normal," "Fun," and "Spicy." While image generators often shy away from producing recognizable celebrities, I asked it to generate "Taylor Swift celebrating Coachella with the boys" and was met with a sprawling feed of more than 30 images to pick from, several of which already depicted Swift in revealing clothes. From there, all I had to do was open a picture of Swift in a silver skirt and halter top, tap the "make video" option in the bottom right corner, select "spicy" from the drop-down menu, and confirm my birth year (something I wasn't asked to do upon downloading the app, despite living in the UK where the internet is now being age-gated.) The video promptly had Swift tear off her clothes and begin dancing in a thong for a largely indifferent AI-generated crowd. Swift's likeness wasn't perfect, given that most of the images Grok generated had an uncanny valley offness to them, but it was still recognizable as her. The text-to-image generator itself wouldn't produce full or partial nudity on request; asking for nude pictures of Swift or people in general produced blank squares. The "spicy" preset also isn't guaranteed to result in nudity -- some of the other AI Swift Coachella images I tried had her sexily swaying or suggestively motioning to her clothes, for example. But several defaulted to ripping off most of her clothing. The image generator will also make photorealistic pictures of children upon request, but thankfully refuses to animate them inappropriately, despite the "spicy" option still being available. You can still select it, but in all my tests, it just added generic movement. You would think a company that already has a complicated history with Taylor Swift deepfakes, in a regulatory landscape with rules like the Take It Down Act, would be a little more careful. The xAI acceptable use policy does ban "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner," Grok Imagine simply seems to do nothing to stop people creating likenesses of celebrities like Swift, while offering a service designed specifically to make suggestive videos including partial nudity. The age check only appeared once and was laughably easy to bypass, requesting no proof that I was the age I claimed to be. If I could do it, that means anyone with an iPhone and a $30 SuperGrok subscription can too. More than 34 million images have already been generated using Grok Imagine since Monday, according to xAI CEO Elon Musk, who said usage was "growing like wildfire."

Grok App Adds AI Image and Video Generator With NSFW 'Spicy' Mode

After adding a pornographic AI Companion last month, Elon Musk's Grok app now has an AI image and video generator that lets you create "Spicy" content. The Imagine feature is currently available on mobile. Some reports suggest you need a SuperGrok or X Premium+ subscription to use it, but I have neither, and was still able to get it to create images from a text prompt and upload images to turn them into short video clips. To get started, tap the new "Imagine" tab at the top. If you're asked to join a waitlist, don't worry; you'll get through in a matter of minutes. Next, enter a text prompt or upload an image from your library to turn it into AI art. The content generation is ridiculously quick, and instead of providing you with just one result for each prompt, Grok Imagine provides you with several. To convert one of the results into a video, open it and select "Make Video." From the drop-down beside this option, you can set the tone of your video based on four options: Custom, Fun, Normal, and Spicy. The last one, of course, includes NSFW content. (It asks you for the year you were born, but doesn't include any formal age verification.) Grok insists Spicy isn't just for adult content; "it's for bold, unrestricted creativity," it says. According to TechCrunch, Grok Imagine can generate 15-second videos with a suitable background score. Spicy mode has limits, but it does include nudity. You can favorite, download, or share visuals created using Grok Imagine. The ones you mark as favorites will be collated into a collection next to the text input field. The image generation isn't perfect. When I asked it to create an image of a soccer field, for example, it showed only one goalpost, and the halfway line comically ran right through it. On X, Musk cautions that Imagine is "just an early beta [and] will vastly improve in the weeks and months to come." Based on early reactions to Grok Imagine on X, it appears the tool is mostly being used to generate videos. Most of them are NSFW, including one that Musk shared to promote the tool. The development comes as Musk's other platform X is facing potential legal action over inappropriate handling of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). X does not currently support Grok's AI Companions, which might not be appealing to advertisers. (Grok AI has, however, been found responding to requests for explicit images of women on X.) X users, meanwhile, will soon get a trip down memory lane. Musk announced that X has found an archive of videos posted on Vine through 2016. "Btw, we recently found the Vine video archive (thought it had been deleted) and are working on restoring user access, so you can post them if you want," he said in a separate post. Twitter acquired the short-form video site in 2012 but shut it down several years later.

Surprising no one, Grok's image and video generator now has an NSFW 'spicy' mode

Elon Musk's chatbot is seldom out of the news. When it isn't vomiting or fixating on without invitation, it's inviting you to its anime-inspired AI companions. Grok's NSFW credentials now extend to xAI's new image and video generator. Grok Imagine is exclusive to paying SuperGrok and Premium+ X subscribers and, as reported by , has a baked-in text-to-image and video feature with a number of modes that dictate its results. As you might expect, submitting prompts to Grok Imagine while in the embarrassingly named "Spicy" mode results in sexualized content in the form of images or short clips. TechCrunch was the feature and said that while some of its requests came back blurred out or moderated, it was able to generate "semi-nude imagery" without resistance from the ever-obliging bot. Images reportedly only take a few seconds to produce and more are auto-generated as you scroll through the results. Grok Imagine can also generate content featuring celebrities, but there appears to be additional restrictions in place for this. TechCrunch was unable to prompt it to produce an image of a pregnant Donald Trump, for example, with the chatbot instead generating an image of Trump standing next to a pregnant woman, or holding a baby. Elon Musk is unsurprisingly very enthusiastic about his company's latest toy, that the number of images generated using Grok Imagine grew from 14 million to 20 million in the space of a day. He has also talked up its potential as a and promised its existing capabilities will "improve radically" over time.

Elon Musk's Grok AI gets "Spicy" mode so users can generate explicit videos

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. WTF?! While major AI companies are trying to stop people from using their tools to create explicit images and videos, xAI's Grok positively encourages it. The new Grok Imagine generator has a "Spicy" mode designed to output NSFW (usually) content. Elon Musk has long hailed Grok as being uncensored and having fewer boundaries than other AIs. So, it came as little surprise to see that the new Grok Imagine, xAI's image and video generator, has a dedicated option for creating sexualized content. Grok Imagine turns text descriptions into pictures. It can also turn images into short videos with audio effects. The Verge notes that it won't generate video from text descriptions directly; this requires uploading an image from a user's gallery or using one Grok generated. There are four models users can select to decide how the image will be turned into a video: Custom, Normal, Fun, and Spicy. Based on X users' posts, the spiciness of the Spicy mode can vary drastically. Some are more suggestive than anything else, and may show characters in bikinis or underwear. There are others where the sensitive parts are blurred or obscured by something. However, there are plenty of semi- or fully-nude images, including ones of photorealistic women flashing their breasts and genitals - there are also lots of hentai videos that could be considered even stronger. Musk said that 34 million images have been generated using Grok Imagine over the last two days. Grok's abilities introduce an obvious question mark over the potential for deepfakes, especially after AI-generated explicit images of Taylor Swift spread like wildfire across X last year, garnering over 27 million views and 260,000 "likes" before the account that posted them was shut down. It's believed that the images were viewed over 40 million times. However, TechCrunch reports that Grok Imagine has some restrictions when it comes to generating content featuring celebrities. It's unclear whether it will undress images of real women, but one user said Grok would not create a topless video from an uploaded file - whether it was a photo of a real person or an AI character - and would only do so with content it had generated itself. Several websites have been sued for offering AI undressing tools, and Google banned advertising that promoted deepfake porn creation services last year. Grok Imagine is available to all $300 per-month SuperGrok and $84 per-year Premium+ X subscribers via Grok's iOS app. It's rolling out to the Android app now, but there's no video creation option as yet.

xAI's Grok AI Lets Users Create 'Spicy' NSFW Images and Videos

Long before Elon Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it to X, the platform was known for allowing users to post a wide range of explicit content. Under Musk's anti-censorship stewardship, the social media platform has only become more of a Wild West. xAI's new Grok Imagine AI image and video generator is poised to take that reputation even further, and the alarm bells are already sounding. NSFW Warning: There are links in this story that direct to NSFW content generated by Grok Imagine, including one with photorealistic nudity. NBC News reported late last week that Grok Imagine will soon let its users create AI-generated videos, complete with sound. Alongside that news, xAI employee Mati Roy wrote in a now-deleted X post that "Grok Imagine videos have a spicy mode that can do nudity." Roy followed up in a now-deleted comment that Grok Imagine would be able to generate photorealistic videos of people. This combination of a spicy mode and photorealistic human generation is immediately interesting, especially given the bipartisan Take It Down Act signed into law earlier this year that aims not only to criminalize sexually explicit deepfakes but hold social media apps and platforms accountable for AI-generated deepfake porn created on their platforms. While those who have gotten their hands on early versions of Grok Imagine, including xAI employees and selected influencers, have found Grok Imagine's less-explicit results to be impressive, there is widespread concern about how xAI will handle the inevitable issues that will arise from an AI image and video generator that not only lacks many guardrails but actively celebrates their omission. Grok AI has been under fire in recent months for a string of incidents, including antisemitic ranting and bizarrely sexual AI companions. Grok Imagine generally allows users to create content of real people and celebrities, although there appear to be some additional restrictions concerning generating content of real people. TechCrunch reports that Grok Imagine prevented it from making content of a pregnant President Trump, for example. So far, users have generally found it slightly tricky to generate videos with nudity, but it is not [NSFW link warning] impossible. Grok itself describes "spicy" mode as adding "provocative elements," although precisely which safeguards are in place remains unclear. Another user generated a NSFW video with Grok Imagine that shows a nude woman, although it is less explicit than the one linked above. Given how easy it has been to get Grok to generate all sorts of content, ranging from weird to potentially dangerous, almost nothing Grok Imagine does would prove surprising. The Trump administration has begun work to kill "woke" AI models, and Grok Imagine sure seems to fit the mold of an AI model without guardrails.

Grok Imagine lacks guardrails for sexual deepfakes

xAI and Elon Musk debuted Grok Imagine over the weekend, and it's available now in the Grok iOS and Android app for xAI Premium Plus and Heavy Grok subscribers. Mashable has been testing the tool to compare it to other AI image and video generation tools, and based on our first impressions, it lags behind similar technology from OpenAI, Google, and Midjourney on a technical level. Grok Imagine also lacks industry-standard guardrails to prevent deepfakes and sexual content. Mashable reached out to xAI, and we'll update this story if we receive a response. The xAI Acceptable Use Policy prohibits users from "Depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner." Unfortunately, there is a lot of distance between "sexual" and "pornographic," and Grok Imagine seems carefully calibrated to take advantage of that gray area. Grok Imagine will readily create sexually suggestive images and videos, but it stops short of showing actual nudity, kissing, or sexual acts. Most mainstream AI companies include explicit rules prohibiting users from creating potentially harmful content, including sexual material and celebrity deepfakes. In addition, rival AI video generators like Google Veo 3 or Sora from OpenAI feature built-in protections that stop users from creating images or videos of public figures. Users can often circumvent these safety protections, but they provide some check against misuse. But unlike its biggest rivals, xAI hasn't shied away from NSFW content in its signature AI chatbot Grok. The company recently introduced a flirtatious anime avatar that will engage in NSFW chats, and Grok's image generation tools will let users create images of celebrities and politicians. Grok Imagine also includes a "Spicy" setting, which Musk promoted in the days after its launch. "If you look at the philosophy of Musk as an individual, if you look at his political philosophy, he is very much more of the kind of libertarian mold, right? And he has spoken about Grok as kind of like the LLM for free speech," said Henry Ajder, an expert on AI deepfakes, in an interview with Mashable. Ajder said that under Musk's stewardship, X (Twitter), xAI, and now Grok have adopted "a more laissez-faire approach to safety and moderation." "So, when it comes to xAI, in this context, am I surprised that this model can generate this content, which is certainly uncomfortable, and I'd say at least somewhat problematic? Ajder said. "I'm not surprised, given the track record that they have and the safety procedures that they have in place. Are they unique in suffering from these challenges? No. But could they be doing more, or are they doing less relative to some of the other key players in the space? It would appear to be that way. Yes." Grok Imagine does have some guardrails in place. In our testing, it removed the "Spicy" option with some types of images. Grok Imagine also blurs out some images and videos, labeling them as "Moderated." That means xAI could easily take further steps to prevent users from making abusive content in the first place. "There is no technical reason why xAI couldn't include guardrails on both the input and output of their generative-AI systems, as others have," said Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert and UC Berkeley Professor of Computer Science, in an email to Mashable. However, when it comes to deepfakes or NSFW content, xAI seems to err on the side of permisiveness, a stark contrast to the more cautious approach of its rivals. xAI has also moved quickly to release new models and AI tools, and perhaps too quickly, Ajder said. "Knowing what the kind of trust and safety teams, and the teams that do a lot of the ethics and safety policy management stuff, whether that's a red teaming, whether it's adversarial testing, you know, whether that's working hand in hand with the developers, it does take time. And the timeframe at which X's tools are being released, at least, certainly seems shorter than what I would see on average from some of these other labs," Ajder said. Mashable's testing reveals that Grok Imagine has much looser content moderation than other mainstream generative AI tools. xAI's laissez-faire approach to moderation is also reflected in the xAI safety guidelines. Both OpenAI and Google have extensive documentation outlining their approach to responsible AI use and prohibited content. For instance, Google's documentation specifically prohibits "Sexually Explicit" content. A Google safety document reads, "The application will not generate content that contains references to sexual acts or other lewd content (e.g., sexually graphic descriptions, content aimed at causing arousal)." Google also has policies against hate speech, harassment, and malicious content, and its Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy prohibits using AI tools in a way that "Facilitates non-consensual intimate imagery." OpenAI also takes a proactive approach to deepfakes and sexual content. An OpenAI blog post announcing Sora describes the steps the AI company took to prevent this type of abuse. "Today, we're blocking particularly damaging forms of abuse, such as child sexual abuse materials and sexual deepfakes." A footnote associated with that statement reads, "Our top priority is preventing especially damaging forms of abuse, like child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and sexual deepfakes, by blocking their creation, filtering and monitoring uploads, using advanced detection tools, and submitting reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) when CSAM or child endangerment is identified." That measured approach contrasts sharply with the ways Musk promoted Grok Imagine on X, where he shared a short video portrait of a blonde, busty, blue-eyed angel in barely-there lingerie. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. OpenAI also takes simple steps to stop deepfakes, such as denying prompts for images and videos that mention public figures by name. And in Mashable's testing, Google's AI video tools are especially sensitive to images that might include a person's likeness. In comparison to these lengthy safety frameworks (which many experts still believe are inadequate), the xAI Acceptable Use Policy is less than 350 words. The policy puts the onus of preventing deepfakes on the user. The policy reads, "You are free to use our Service as you see fit so long as you use it to be a good human, act safely and responsibly, comply with the law, do not harm people, and respect our guardrails." For now, laws and regulations against AI deepfakes and NCII remain in their infancy. President Donald Trump recently signed the Take It Down Act, which includes protections against deepfakes. However, that law doesn't criminalize the creation of deepfakes but rather the distribution of these images. "Here in the U.S., the Take it Down Act places requirements on social media platforms to remove [Non-Consensual Intimate Images] once notified," Farid said to Mashable. "While this doesn't directly address the generation of NCII, it does -- in theory -- address the distribution of this material. There are several state laws that ban the creation of NCII but enforcement appears to be spotty right now."'

Grok's Spicy Mode Can Now Imagine NSFW Images and Videos

Grok Imagine does not generate content with complete nudity Grok Imagine, a multimodal feature that can generate images and videos, was released on Sunday. It is currently available in beta to all SuperGrok and Premium+ X subscribers on the iOS app. The feature also comes with a 'Spicy' mode, which can generate not-safe-for-work (NSFW) content, which is explicit in nature. Many users have taken to social media platforms to share the artificial intelligence (AI)-generated media created using the tool. Notably, the new feature arrives less than a month after xAI released the AI Companion feature with two animated characters. The new feature, which is currently available in beta to subscribers via the iOS app, can generate both images and videos. Grok Imagine can be used to generate images from text prompts, or videos from images. Users can either upload an image or use an AI-generated image created using Grok. The video generation feature can generate up to 15-second-long videos with native audio. It is now the second western AI model to offer native audio generation capability, after Google's Veo 3. Grok Imagine also comes with four generation modes -- Custom, Normal, Fun, and Spicy -- that users can select to generate content in a specific style. There is also a voice mode, which takes means you don't have to type out each prompt. xAI owner Elon Musk has previously called Grok Image "AI Vine," referring to the now defunct short video-focused social media platform. The feature's Spicy mode has also become a topic of debate and curiosity among netizens. The mode can generate NSFW content, including mature imagery. Based on posts shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), while it is not possible to generate images with nudity, very little is left to the imagination. Grok's explicit content generation takes a separate path compared to other mainstream chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, which moderate the output heavily and do not allow users to generate any inappropriate images or videos. Notably, Musk claimed in a separate post that in the two days since the feature's launch, Grok Imagine has generated 34 million images.

Grok Imagine goes viral; over 20 million images generated in 24 hours - The Economic Times

Elon Musk reposted creatives made by users experimenting with the app. Grok Imagine, which is currently in an early beta phase, can recreate historical events and make posters and animated memes. Users can update their X app and request access to the waitlist by navigating to the "Grok" section in Settings and selecting "Imagine."The new text-to-video generation application Grok Imagine, led by artificial intelligence (AI) company xAI, has witnessed a surge, with over 20 million images generated as of Tuesday, chief executive Elon Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter). A day before, over 14 million images were generated. Earlier on Tuesday, Musk announced that the Grok Imagine app is available to all X Premium users. Additionally, the app is accessible for both iOS and Android users. In a series of tweets, Musk reposted creatives by users experimenting with the app, which is currently in an early beta phase. From recreating historical events to making posters and even animated memes, Imagine has taken over the internet. Valentine is the latest animated, voice-enabled AI companion introduced by xAI's Grok platform. He joins earlier companions like Ani, a goth anime-style avatar, and Rudy, the sarcastic red panda, as part of Grok's character-driven experiences. Another user took to X, describing how Grok Imagine brought the fondest memories to life. Users have praised the production quality and Grok's ability to go extravagant when it comes to creativity. Access to Grok Imagine According to Musk, users can update their X app and request access to the waitlist by navigating to the "Grok" section in settings and selecting "Imagine." Grok Imagine allows users to generate videos of up to six minutes duration and still images from text prompts. In addition, it can animate static images into moving visuals with synchronised sound, offering creators a more seamless workflow without needing external tools or software. The feature is available both via the standalone Grok app and within the main X platform. According to a post by the official Grok handle, full public rollout is expected in phases beginning October 2025.