Photographer's work misattributed as AI-generated by Elon Musk's Grok
Elon Musk retweeted photographs by Australian photographer Charles Brooks with a caption crediting Grok for creating them, when the AI system had only added minor elements to Brooks's original work. Brooks complained publicly, and X suspended his account before reinstating it six hours later.
What happened
Australian photographer Charles Brooks created photos of the insides of instruments. Another X user added small human figures to three of these photos using Grok in late May 2025, crediting Brooks in a comment.
On May 31, Elon Musk retweeted the post with the caption 'Generate images with @Grok' and a tag for the AI program, without mentioning Brooks. Musk's retweet to 220 million followers suggested the AI made the photos entirely.
Reported impact
Brooks stated that his photographs were presented as AI-generated work, which misrepresented the nature and origin of his art. He called the crediting approach 'disingenuous' because his name was only mentioned in a follow-up comment rather than the main post.
X suspended Brooks's account after he complained on Reddit on June 4, 2025. He was reinstated six hours later.
Index analysis
Grok was used to add elements to existing photographs but did not generate the base images. The failure to credit the original photographer in the main post created a misattribution of work to the AI system.
Governance controls
X suspended Brooks's account after he publicly criticized the misattribution, then reinstated it after six hours.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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