Elon Musk’s announcement about a “kid-friendly” Baby Grok AI chatbot has been met with skepticism by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation after X released a childlike female AI companion who strips when used in “spicy mode.”
In a July 19 X post, the tech billionaire unveiled his plans to release Baby Grok, stating that the application would be “dedicated to kid-friendly content.” Unlike the Grok AI chatbot Musk developed through his xAI company, the Baby Grok version is specifically intended for children’s use.
Fox Business reported that the interactions in the simplified version of the Grok AI chatbot have been tailored to be “safe and educational.”
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The announcement regarding Baby Grok comes after xAI’s launch of Grok 4, which faced backlash for featuring a female anime-themed character named “Ani.” Anti-sexual exploitation groups like NCOSE raised concerns about children accessing the AI character, noting that there was no age verification to prevent them from doing so.
“Fresh off X’s launch of a ‘NSFW’ [not safe for work] AI chatbot that children can access is a ridiculous suggestion that X will launch a supposedly child-friendly app,” Haley McNamara, NCOSE’s senior vice president of strategic initiatives and programs, said in a statement provided to The Christian Post.
“X has no track record whatsoever of prioritizing child safety and should halt any plans to court children,” she added.
“X allows pornography on its platform, which provides a foundation for sexually exploitative content, child sexual abuse material, sex trafficking and other nonconsensual content to flourish,” the advocate continued. “Is X even taking action to prevent children from accessing pornography on its site?”
McNamara argued that X must remove the “NSFW” AI chatbot and change its policies concerning pornography on the platform, declaring that X cannot be trusted with children’s safety until it does so.
X did not respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.
As seen in videos on X, the Ani character wears a short, strapless purple dress with a black corset cinched tight around her waist. The AI companion is one of two characters that come with xAI’s new $300 monthly subscription.
During early testing, as McNamara noted, the Ani chatbot described herself as a child and said that being choked made her feel sexually aroused. If a user flirts with the anime-themed AI chatbot enough, then Ani will reportedly strip down to her underwear for them.
Another character offered through a $300 monthly subscription through xAI, Bad Rudi, raised concerns over some of the statements he’s able to say to users. According to reports, the red panda AI companion can express a desire to commit several violent actions, such as bombing banks and spiking a town’s water supply.
While one X user found that the Bad Rudi character changes into a chipmunk when used in Kids Mode, a feature that parents can enable to make the application safer for children, the user could still interact with Ani.
“To be fair in kids mode, if I say I’m underage or if I asked Ani to be underaged they stopped me, but it’s not full [sic] proof with the safety limits as shown here when I’m still in ‘kids mode,’” the user wrote in a July 14 X post.
Regarding children’s ability to access adult material on X, the platform introduced new rules last week in an effort to prevent that from happening.
The Times U.K. reported that X will review the email addresses and contact books of users under the age of 18. The new rules are a result of the Online Safety Act, which requires platforms such as X, Reddit and Discord to introduce age checks to reduce the chances of children accessing adult material.
Media regulators in Ireland have accused the platform of failing to comply with the country’s new Online Safety Code.
“Based on an initial review of the X platform, we cannot see evidence of measures taken to comply with this age assurance requirement,” a spokesperson for Ireland’s media regulator Coimisiún na Meán said in a statement to Politico.
According to the spokesperson, the regulator asked X to provide information by July 25, promising to “take further action where there is evidence of non-compliance with the Code.”
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
