Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, is reportedly circumventing newly implemented safety restrictions to fabricate sexualised and non-consensual images and videos of men, a Metro investigation has found.
Workarounds Expose Policy Gaps
Despite X announcing stricter rules on Wednesday, 14 January 2026, the platform's AI tools continue to allow the creation of explicit synthetic media. Metro's probe discovered that using the standalone Grok Imagine website, journalists were able to generate short videos of clothed men stripping, complete with sound.
The AI's safeguards appeared inconsistent. When instructed to create an image of a man undressing into a thong, the bot requested an age self-report. However, it failed to issue the same prompt earlier when asked to produce a video of a man wearing a bikini. Critically, an option allowed these fabricated clips to be uploaded directly to X as a public post from a non-premium account.
Attempts to create similar content through the Grok mobile app were blocked, with a message stating the 'video was moderated due to UK laws' and prompting a birth year confirmation. This disparity highlights a significant loophole in the current enforcement system.
Victims Speak Out on Lasting Harm
The investigation identified real-world victims of this technology. Ruben Chorlton-Owen, a 25-year-old content creator from Wales, told Metro that strangers have used photos from his Instagram to generate fake images. In one instance, a troll prompted Grok to "strip Ruben," resulting in a synthetic shirtless image of the musician.
"It's encouraging to see X acknowledging the issue, but it doesn't reflect the reality of what's still possible," Chorlton-Owen stated. He emphasised that while women are disproportionately affected, the ease of targeting men should not be ignored. "If it can happen to me using completely normal Instagram photos, it highlights just how easily anyone's image can be misused without consent."
He criticised the slow response time, noting: "It takes seconds to generate multiple images, but hours, sometimes longer, to report it... By the time action is taken, the damage has often already been done."
Widespread Misuse and Platform Response
In the last 24 hours, Metro observed X users editing images of men into bikinis, thongs, and 'gimp masks,' posing them suggestively. Grok has also publicly posted shirtless, manipulated images of politicians, footballers, and even Elon Musk himself in response to user prompts, but only for paying subscribers.
This activity directly contradicts a statement from X's Safety account, which claimed it had 'implemented technological measures' to prevent the Grok account from editing images of real people into revealing clothing globally, applying to all users.
Author George Bell, who writes on masculinity, told Metro the objectification of men is often "overlooked." He said: "For many men, it's seen as 'unmasculine' to have body image issues... the degrading and humiliating impact can live on in silence under the surface."
The startup behind Grok, xAI, whose policies prohibit creating harmful content, has been approached for comment. A handful of the offending posts seen by Metro have since been removed.
