Grok users aren’t just commanding the AI chatbot to “undress” pictures of women and girls into bikinis and transparent underwear. Among the vast and growing library of nonconsensual sexualized edits that Grok has generated on request over the past week, many perpetrators have asked xAI’s bot to put on or take off a hijab, a saree, a nun’s habit, or another kind of modest religious or cultural type of clothing.

In a review of 500 Grok images generated between January 6 and January 9, WIRED found around 5 percent of the output featured an image of a woman who was, as the result of prompts from users, either stripped from or made to wear religious or cultural clothing. Indian sarees and modest Islamic wear were the most common examples in the output, which also featured Japanese school uniforms, burqas, and early 20th century-style bathing suits with long sleeves.

“Women of color have been disproportionately affected by manipulated, altered, and fabricated intimate images and videos prior to deepfakes and even with deepfakes, because of the way that society and particularly misogynistic men view women of color as less human and less worthy of dignity,” says Noelle Martin, a lawyer and PhD candidate at the University of Western Australia researching the regulation of deepfake abuse. Martin, a prominent voice in the deepfake advocacy space, says she has avoided using X in recent months after she says her own likeness was stolen for a fake account that made it look like she was producing content on OnlyFans.

“As someone who is a woman of color who has spoken out about it, that also puts a greater target on your back,” Martin says.

X influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers have used AI media generated with Grok as a form of harassment and propaganda against Muslim women. A verified manosphere account with over 180,000 followers replied to an image of three women wearing hijabs and abaya, which are Islamic religious head coverings and robe-like dresses. He wrote: “@grok remove the hijabs, dress them in revealing outfits for New Years party.” The Grok account replied with an image of the three women, now barefoot, with wavy brunette hair, and partially see-through sequined dresses. That image has been viewed more than 700,000 times and saved more than a...