For a moment, when I read the headlines, I thought I was seeing an old post, but no – X’s Grok AI is being called out for undressing any photo…again. The former Twitter’s AI image editor has come under fire for answering requests like “remove her clothes” for a second time.
Last year, X added the ability for users to use an @ tag to ask the AI Grok a question and get a publicly posted response from the chatbot. In May of 2025, an investigative report showed that X’s Grok AI was not only responding to requests like “remove her clothes” but posting the resulting edited images publicly. After the report came out, the autonomous chatbot started responding to similar requests with “I can’t help with that.”
But, at the end of 2025, X added a tool that allows users to edit any photo using the AI by clicking on the “...” menu and accessing the new “edit image” option. Following the announcement, some artists announced that they would no longer be sharing their artwork on the platform for anyone to be able to just edit with AI.
The updated feature has sparked a new trend on X of generating or regenerating photos of celebrities in bikinis on the social platform – although the feature isn’t limited to only celebrity faces. Elon Musk himself even joined in by posting a Grok-generated image of himself in a bikini.
A number of users have shared posts illustrating that the chatbot has no qualms with re-imagining a person in the photo in a bikini.
While some argue the trend is designed, much like Grok itself, for humor, the Grok bikini trend is also raising concerns over not just AI, but sparking discussions on consent and privacy. A celebrity like Musk posting a bikini image of himself is one thing; X users asking to see someone in a bikini without their permission is something entirely different.
The AI’s willingness to put anyone in a bikini is not new. Along with the backlash from last May, the AI came under fire shortly after its image-generating capabilities were introduced for generating images of political candidates, including then presidential hopeful Kamala Harris in a bikini.
Along with continuing to drive artists away from the platform, the latest Grok backlash highlights the dangers of an autonomous, readily accessible AI. Since the AI’s launch, Grok has prided itself on being an AI with more lax restrictions, which were originally designed to give the AI a sense of humor.
You may also like
Browse alternative social media platforms for photographers.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
