Elon Musk's AI photo tool is generating realistic, fake images of Trump, Harris and Biden

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok on Tuesday began allowing users to create AI-generated images from text prompts and post them to X.

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok on Tuesday began allowing users to create AI-generated images from text prompts and post them to X.

Almost immediately, people began using the tool to flood the social media site with fake images of political figures such as former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as of Musk himself — some depicting the public figures in obviously false but nonetheless disturbing situations, like participating in the 9/11 attacks.

Unlike other mainstream AI photo tools, Grok, created by Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI, appears to have few guardrails.

In tests of the tool, for example, CNN was easily able to get Grok to generate fake, photorealistic images of politicians and political candidates that, taken out of context, could be misleading to voters. The tool also created benign yet convincing images of public figures, such as Musk eating steak in a park.

Some X users posted images they said they created with Grok showing prominent figures consuming drugs, cartoon characters committing violent murders and sexualized images of women in bikinis. In one post viewed nearly 400,000 times, a user shared an image created by Grok of Trump leaning out of the top of a truck, firing a rifle. CNN tests confirmed the tool is capable of creating such images.

The tool is likely to add to concerns that artificial intelligence could create an explosion of false or misleading information across the internet, especially ahead of the US presidential election. Lawmakers, civil society groups and even tech leaders themselves have raised alarms that the misuse of such tools could cause confusion and chaos for voters.

“Grok is the most fun AI in the world!” Musk posted on X Wednesday, in response to a user praising the tool for being “uncensored.”