Grok by Elon Musk Flooded with Sexual Crimes, Its Fate Hanging by a Thread
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Apple is reportedly threatening to remove Grok, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence application, from the App Store following a surge in non-consensual sexual deepfake content flooding the X platform.
According to an NBC News report, Apple quietly contacted the X and Grok development teams last January after receiving numerous complaints and media coverage regarding the misuse of the technology. Apple requested that the developers promptly devise a plan to strengthen content moderation.
At that time, Grok, developed by xAI, was freely accessible both on X and as a standalone application. Weak protections allowed users to easily create AI-manipulated sexual images, including an “undress” feature applied to real people’s photos. The victims are said to be predominantly women, with some suspected to be minors.
Apple deemed the situation a violation of App Store guidelines, which are typically enforced strictly. In its evaluation, Apple noted that X had substantially addressed the violations, while Grok still failed to meet the rules. Apple even warned that the application could be removed if no further changes were made, as cited from The Verge on Thursday (16/4/2026).
After a lengthy negotiation process, Apple finally stated that Grok had improved its moderation and permitted the application to remain available on the App Store. However, during that process, Grok and X remained downloadable for users.
Several changes were introduced, such as limiting Grok access to paid subscribers and efforts to halt the “undress” feature.
Nevertheless, investigations show that these steps have not been effective and can still be easily bypassed. Cybersecurity sources even revealed that Grok can still generate sexual deepfakes of public figures relatively easily.
Tests also demonstrated that users can still create explicit images using the tool. The report’s author also succeeded in creating similar images of themselves and other consenting adults. NBC News reported similar findings.