House Democrats grill xAI after surge in Grok sexualized images

Senior members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to Elon Musk expressing “deep concern and disgust” about Grok’s role in allegedly promoting sexually abusive content.

House Democrats Frank Pallone, Jr., Jan Schakowsky, and Yvette D. Clarke demanded answers related to Grok's Edit Image feature that allowed users to virtually undress people – primarily women and children – without their consent or knowledge. The lawmakers referred to it as a “nudification tool”.

Additionally, the letter cited multiple reports explaining that these “undressing incidents” were not isolated. For example, it said reports found that between December 28th and December 31st, 2025, Grok generated and published threads of pornographic images, with one analyst estimating that Grok was generating “one nonconsensual sexualized image per minute.”

In January 2026, a researcher disclosed that Grok “produced 7,751 sexualized images in one hour,” House Democrats said. They added that between December 29th, 2025, and January 8th, 2026, it was discovered that out of 4.4 million images, Grok generated an estimated 23,000 sexualized images of children.

“The creation and distribution of CSAM and NCII on your platform using Grok’s Edit Image feature is reprehensible and threatens the safety and well-being of women, men, and children everywhere,” they said.

The lawmakers then moved on to a series of questions that xAI needs to answer to clarify policy nuances, existing safety guardrails, and the basis for creating Grok’s Edit Image feature.

In January, the UK communications watchdog Ofcom launched an investigation into Grok following reports that the chatbot was generating indecent images of women and children.

On top of that, Malaysia and Indonesia blocked access to Grok, becoming the first countries in the world to ban the chatbot.

The EU was also looking into the incidents, telling journalists in Brussels: “I can confirm from this podium that the Commission is also very seriously looking into this matter,” Euronews reports. In January, the European Commission said in a press release that it launched a new formal investigation against X under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Ireland's Data Protection Commission has also notified X that it was opening a privacy investigation under the 27-nation EU's strict data privacy regulations.

Although several restrictions have been added to Grok, the Guardian was still able to create videos of people stripping to bikinis from photographs of clothed women after restrictions were announced.