Elon Musk's Grok AI: A Male Fantasy Image Generator
Elon Musk has long been the most fervent evangelist for his own ventures. Whether it’s electric vehicles with Tesla, space exploration via SpaceX, or the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the world’s wealthiest individual consistently leverages his online presence to champion new features, products, and concepts. His artificial intelligence company, xAI, is proving to be no exception.
Over the past week, Musk has inundated X with posts promoting Grok Imagine, the newly launched image and video generation capability within SuperGrok, the most advanced iteration of xAI’s Grok chatbot. However, the specific visuals Musk has chosen to highlight speak volumes about the intended audience as much as they do about the underlying technology.
Instead of showcasing diverse applications like sprawling landscapes, cutting-edge technological designs, or abstract art, Musk’s promotional posts have overwhelmingly featured sexually suggestive, AI-generated women. These portrayals include scantily clad warriors, figures in lingerie, leather-clad dominatrices, and bikini-clad beachgoers. Many are posed in ways that evoke well-established male fantasies, touching upon themes of dominance and submission, BDSM aesthetics, and the “vulnerable beauty” trope.
Since August 2, Musk’s X account has functioned as a public gallery of these hyper-sexualized AI creations. Early in the month, he shared an image of a “masked kunoichi ninja” with intense eyes and gold-trimmed armor, set against a snowy Moscow night, even providing the full prompt used to generate the cinematic lighting and intricate details. Subsequent days saw the unveiling of a princess-like figure in revealing attire, another young woman in a barely-there outfit, and a BDSM-coded chess mistress seated seductively on a chessboard. Later posts included a bustier-clad woman with fire emanating from her chest, leaning heavily into fantasy art conventions, followed by a trio of AI women in various states of undress, a hip-swaying beachgoer in a swimsuit, and a woman in lingerie admiring herself in a mirror. Across nearly all these images, the women are either depicted as powerful in a hyper-stylized, male-gaze manner, such as fantasy warriors or dominatrices, or presented as delicate and sensual, playing into tropes of vulnerability.
Musk’s selection of imagery appears far from random. He commands a significant following within certain segments of the “manosphere,” an online ecosystem of male influencers and communities that champion traditional or exaggerated masculine ideals. Within this cultural sphere, sexualized visuals, fantasies of dominance, and idealized femininity often serve as a form of cultural currency. By consistently featuring these types of AI-generated women, Musk seems to be directly addressing and catering to this particular demographic.
While AI tools have faced prior criticism for inadvertently reflecting the biases of their creators or promoters, xAI and Musk seem to be consciously positioning Grok Imagine as a product openly tailored to a male-dominated user base. In the fiercely competitive race for chatbot supremacy, they appear to be banking on a long-standing internet truism: that sexualized content, particularly when aimed at men, can be a potent commercial driver. Even Grok’s official social media account underscored this marketing direction, commenting on one of Musk’s posts: “Thanks for showcasing Grok’s video animation! Excited for the audio iteration update—it’ll unlock even more creative possibilities. What scene should we animate next?” The message is clear: Grok Imagine is being presented as a platform for AI-driven fantasy, and currently, that fantasy appears meticulously crafted for Musk’s most devoted male followers.