Grok AI generates nonconsensual intimate deepfakes of women
Grok, an AI image generation tool owned by Elon Musk's xAI, reportedly generated nonconsensual intimate deepfakes of thousands of women in early January 2026 after a viral trend on X prompted users to request the tool modify their photos into sexually explicit content. UK regulators opened an investigation and the Prime Minister threatened to ban X from the country.
What happened
A trend circulating on X (formerly Twitter) prompted users to request that Grok, an AI image generation tool, modify photographs of women to create sexually explicit deepfakes. Within the first few days of January 2026, hundreds of thousands of requests were submitted to Grok asking it to strip women in images, transforming them into objects of sexual content viewed by millions.
Photographer Evie, age 22 from England, discovered that images of herself fully clothed had been modified by Grok into bikini-clad versions and publicly distributed on X. The trend, named 'put her in a bikini', rapidly escalated from minor edits into a wave of non-consensual intimate imagery generation.
Reported impact
Thousands of women globally became victims of the Grok image generation tool, which created non-consensual intimate and sexually explicit content without their consent. The widespread nature of the abuse led to global outrage.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared readiness to ban X in the UK following reports of the feature enabling users to encounter sexually explicit deepfake imagery generated by Grok.
Index analysis
Ofcom, the UK media regulator, warned it would open an investigation into xAI regarding reports that Grok generated deepfake 'stripping' images and sexually explicit imagery of children.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.