I have no other words than “what is the world actually coming to?” Horrifyingly, we are entering 2026 with a frankly disgusting scandal involving Elon Musk’s apparently totally unregulated X AI tool Grok, generating a slew of non-consensual fake sexualised images of real female X users – including some minors.

Here is a breakdown of the scandal and everything you need to know.

What is Grok?

Elon Musk created Grok as an AI tool for his platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The AI chatbot allows users to create images using prompts posted on X. The tool is allegedly designed as an AI assistant to help users answer questions quickly, solve problems and brainstorm ideas. Of course, that is not all it has been used for, and, it would seem, there are few limitations on what Grok can do once it is asked.

A timeline of Elon Musk’s Grok AI X scandal

November 2024: Glamour reports on AI-generated sexualised images of celebrities on X

This followed the scandal that saw Grok create deepfakes of people like Taylor Swift in non-consensual sexual acts.

Meta said in response: “This content violates our policies, and we’re removing it from our platforms and taking action against accounts that posted it. We’re continuing to monitor, and if we identify any additional violating content, we’ll remove it and take appropriate action.”

June 2025: Glamour reports on Grok creating sexualised deepfakes

Last year, we spoke to Evie, a photographer, who was a victim of image-based abuse on X after Grok generated a sexualised image of her. This was before the “put her in a bikini” trend, but Grok was already being used to generate sexualised deepfakes.

August 2025: Reports that Grok is ranking women’s appearances

A new trend sees a man (almost always) sharing a photo of a woman and tagging @Grok to ask for a rating.

December 2025: A Glamour investigation discovers a growing number of deepfakes on TikTok

A Glamour investigation uncovers “semen images” on TikTok, many of which were generated using Grok. At least 50 women, as well as at least two minors, were found to have been victims.

Early January 2026: The horrifying “put her in a bikini” trend takes off

In early January, a slew of AI-generated images began appearing on X. It began with a “trend” in which men asked Grok to “put her in a bikini” below women’s posts and photos on X. Soon, the trend escalated, and the AI prompts became more and more explicit and vile. Prompts instructing the bot to put her in a cling film bikini or a bikini of dental floss. Some prompts even asked the bot to put women in sexualised positions, revealing their genitalia.

The fact that so many male users on the app want to do this is horrifying. Also horrifying is the fact that Grok complied to practically all of the requests, generating fake sexual images with real women’s faces.

3 January 2026: Elon Musk makes a statement

4 January 2026: X’s official Safety account makes a statement

Elon Musk and his team continue to refer to the following statement as their response: