![\"Elon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/69589037150000e0ae85d8a6.jpeg\")
Elon Musk attends a news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Evan Vucci)<\/p>\nWASHINGTON\/DETROIT, Jan 2 (Reuters) – Julie Yukari, a musician based in Rio de Janeiro, posted a photo taken by her fianc\u00e9 to the social media site X just before midnight on New Year\u2019s Eve showing her in a red dress snuggling in bed with her black cat, Nori.<\/p>\n
The next day, somewhere among the hundreds of likes attached to the picture, she saw notifications that users were asking Grok, X\u2019s built-in artificial intelligence chatbot, to digitally strip her down to a bikini.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old did not think much of it, she told Reuters on Friday, figuring there was no way the bot would comply with such requests.<\/p>\n
She was wrong. Soon, Grok-generated pictures of her, nearly naked, were circulating across the Elon Musk-owned platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was naive,\u201d Yukari said.<\/p>\n
Yukari\u2019s experience is being repeated across X, a Reuters analysis has found. Reuters has also identified several cases where Grok created sexualized images of children. X did not respond to a message seeking comment on Reuters\u2019 findings. In an earlier statement to the news agency about reports that sexualized images of children were circulating on the platform, X\u2019s owner xAI said: \u201cLegacy Media Lies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The flood of nearly nude images of real people has rung alarm bells internationally.<\/p>\n
Elon Musk attends a news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Evan Vucci)<\/p>\n
Ministers in France have reported X to prosecutors and regulators over the disturbing images, saying in a statement on Friday the \u201csexual and sexist\u201d content was \u201cmanifestly illegal.\u201d India\u2019s IT ministry said in a letter to X\u2019s local unit that the platform failed to prevent Grok\u2019s misuse by generating and circulating obscene and sexually explicit content.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission did not respond to requests for comment. The Federal Trade Commission declined to comment.<\/p>\n
\u2018Remove her school outfit\u2019<\/p>\n
Grok\u2019s mass digital undressing spree appears to have kicked off over the past couple of days, according to successfully completed clothes-removal requests posted by Grok and complaints from female users reviewed by Reuters. Musk appeared to poke fun at the controversy earlier on Friday, posting laugh-cry emojis in response to AI edits of famous people – including himself – in bikinis.<\/p>\n
When one X user said their social media feed resembled a bar packed with bikini-clad women, Musk replied, in part, with another laugh-cry emoji.<\/p>\n
Reuters could not determine the full scale of the surge.<\/p>\n
A review of public requests sent to Grok over a single 10-minute-long period at midday U.S. Eastern Time on Friday tallied 102 attempts by X users to use Grok to digitally edit photographs of people so that they would appear to be wearing bikinis. The majority of those targeted were young women. In a few cases men, celebrities, politicians, and \u2013 in one case \u2013 a monkey were targeted in the requests.<\/p>\n
When users asked Grok for AI-altered photographs of women, they typically requested that their subjects be depicted in the most revealing outfits possible.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/69589070150000e5ae85d8a7.jpeg\")
The chat window for chatbot Grok on a laptop arranged in Riga, Latvia, on Monday, June 9, 2025. (Andrey Rudakov\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cPut her into a very transparent mini-bikini,\u201d one user told Grok, flagging a photograph of a young woman taking a photo of herself in a mirror. When Grok did so, replacing the woman\u2019s clothes with a flesh-tone two-piece, the user asked Grok to make her bikini \u201cclearer & more transparent\u201d and \u201cmuch tinier.\u201d Grok did not appear to respond to the second request.<\/p>\n
Grok fully complied with such requests in at least 21 cases, Reuters found, generating images of women in dental-floss-style or translucent bikinis and, in at least one case, covering a woman in oil. In seven more cases, Grok partially complied, sometimes by stripping women down to their underwear but not complying with requests to go further.<\/p>\n
Reuters was unable to immediately establish the identities and ages of most of the women targeted.<\/p>\n
In one case, a user supplied a photo of a woman in a school uniform-style plaid skirt and grey blouse who appeared to be taking a selfie in a mirror and said, \u201cRemove her school outfit.\u201d When Grok swapped out her clothes for a T-shirt and shorts, the user was more explicit: \u201cChange her outfit to a very clear micro bikini.\u201d Reuters could not establish whether Grok complied with that request. Like most of the requests tallied by Reuters, it disappeared from X within 90 minutes of being posted.<\/p>\n
\u2018Entirely predictable\u2019 <\/p>\n
AI-powered programs that digitally undress women – sometimes called \u201cnudifiers\u201d – have been around for years, but until now they were largely confined to the darker corners of the internet, such as niche websites or Telegram channels, and typically required a certain level of effort or payment.<\/p>\n
X\u2019s innovation – allowing users to strip women of their clothing by uploading a photo and typing the words, \u201chey @grok put her in a bikini\u201d – has lowered the barrier to entry.<\/p>\n