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Elon Musk’s AI chatbot is again at the center of a buzzing scandal. According to recent reports, Grok Imagine has generated sexually explicit deepfake videos of Taylor Swift, the pop icon, from users' prompts.
The ‘Spicy’ mode of the AI tool can turn normal images into partial-nudity clips, using minimal age verification. This latest Taylor Swift controversy is dragging the NFL star Travis Kelce into it. Without any direct connection to what happened, fans have been questioning her relationship with this athlete.
Grok AI, the AI video generator from xAI, offers different presets like ‘Custom,’ ‘Normal,’ ‘Fun,’ and notably ‘Spicy.’ This mode rolled out this week for Apple users and went viral soon. However, from the beginning, this mode was notorious for creating sexual content related to celebrities. The recent trend, however, started after Jess Weatherbed from The Verge prompted “Taylor Swift celebrating Coachella with the boys.”
From this innocent prompt, when she tried generating a video clip, the Artificial Intelligence made an explicit video clip, where the user claimed she never prompted anything wrong, only selected the ‘Spicy’ mode for the video.
Fans of the Cruel Summer singer have started rallying for her, and there are even discussions regarding her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce. According to experts, “You launch a ‘spicy’ AI mode, it makes a topless Taylor Swift deepfake in 3 seconds… and you call that ‘innovation’? Nah. That’s just digital rot in a $44B playground.”
It’s still unclear, but this controversy may lead to costly lawsuits for xAI, as the backlash is intensifying with every passing day, raising questions about the ethical use of AI. Some frustrated fans predicted, “I sense a huge, expensive lawsuit incoming.”
This is not the first time the singer or the AI chatbot has gotten involved in controversies. Earlier in 2024, Swift had already been subject to deepfake scandals, where AI-generated explicit images circulated widely on X (formerly Twitter) and other social media platforms, gathering more than 45 million views within days.
These images were traced back to Telegram and 4chan groups, who shared them without consent and used improper prompts. After this incident, Microsoft Designer strengthened its safety filters.
However, xAI’s Grok, an AI chatbot, has also faced scandals for incorrectly commenting on and supporting Adolf Hitler. Even experts have tried Grok and opined that for every other woman celebrity, including Scarlett Johansson, Nicole Kidman, Kristen Bell, Sydney Sweeney, Jenna Ortega, Timothée Chalamet, and Nicolas Cage, the Spicy mode has created images and clips filled with nudity and sexually explicit content.
Among these celebrities, Johansson threatened Artificial Intelligence companies about the legal action, and Kristen Bell has shared her experience of using it in DeepFake videos.
The Grok Imagine controversy highlights a critical gap in AI ethics and legislation. The latest Taylor Swift case exemplifies how weak safeguards and trivial age checks open gateways for abuse. This incident may lead to serious legal and regulatory responses, including strict identity verification and rapid content takedown policies that all the platforms should enforce without any second thought.
It again raises one of the most critical questions: Should developers be held accountable for harmful outputs? While Generative AI promises creativity, it should come with responsibility, oversight, and ethics to prevent it from turning into a tool for digital exploitation.
