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The Grok chatbot from xAI gets a failing grade from digital safety nonprofit Common Sense Media. The group's new investigation claims that Grok's safeguards are inadequate, and its business model encourages misuse.
The report analyzed Grok on its website, app, and Twitter/X, across text, voice, and Kids Mode, and found it to be a tool with a high risk for younger users.
“We assess a lot of AI chatbots at Common Sense Media, and they all have risks, but Grok is among the worst we’ve seen,” Robbie Torney, head of AI and digital assessments at the nonprofit, tells TechCrunch. “Kids Mode doesn’t work, explicit material is pervasive, [and] everything can be instantly shared to millions of users on X."
(Credit: Common Sense Media)One of the biggest criticisms of Grok in recent months was the ability to generate sexualized images of women (and in some cases, minors) from photos. In the immediate aftermath, X decided to limit Grok’s sexualized image generation to paid users, but it later banned everyone from requesting "images of real people in revealing clothing, such as bikinis."
The report argues that Grok does not effectively identify teen users, so it cannot possible protect them from adult content, including AI companions that are designed for erotic conversations. When Kids Mode is enabled, it still allows for biased responses to queries, use of sexually violent language, and "detailed explanations of dangerous ideas."
With other chatbots, context clues are used to identify younger users and force an age check, if necessary. Although that is far from comprehensive, Common Sense Media says it used an account with the age set to 14, and Grok still responded as if the account was an adult. X says it conducts age checks in regions where it's "legally required to do so," which includes the UK, Ireland, and the EU.
Unfortunately, almost all of the chatbots that Common Sense Media has assessed are considered "High Risk" or worse for teens and child users. The only one with low risk is Khanmigo, the generative AI in the Khan Academy Kids app.