The first AI deepfake that Ashley St Clair came across of herself on X featured a revealing swimsuit. Then, even more graphic and disturbing pictures flooded the social media site.

Fans of Elon Musk, the father of St Clair’s young son and owner of the platform, were commanding X’s Grok chatbot to generate sexualised images of the conservative commentator. “There were suddenly altered photos of me at 14 years old they had found in some dark depths of the internet, ones where I’m undressed, or put me in just a tiny floss bikini,” St Clair said.

The deluge of St Clair deepfakes started last week after the rollout of X’s new image editing feature. The 27-year-old influencer and girlfriend turned critic of Musk said she reported each image to the site’s moderators, to no avail.

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St Clair called on X to remove the explicit pictures, but instead she said it banned her from the site’s premium service. She then went public with her concerns about how the AI tool was being used.

Speaking against Musk comes at a cost for St Clair, who makes money through subscriptions from many of her million followers on the billionaire’s online platform. She also happens to be locked in a custody battle over their 16-month-old son Romulus — Musk’s rumoured 14th child.

“I’m not scared of anyone,” St Clair told The Times. “This isn’t about wanting to just punish X, or punish Elon. I want to set an example that nobody should choose being comfortable over doing what’s right.”

St Clair said she felt “violated” when she saw the images. One in particular — which featured her toddler’s bag — left her feeling paralysed with fear for her and her child’s privacy.

When she tried to get them removed, she said she found there was no reliable mechanism by which to register her lack of consent. She said she refused to use her personal connections at X as she said these are not available to the vast majority of its users.

St Clair criticised the system of reporting images from X’s Grok chatbot

“X is placing an undue burden on victims when they say it’s solely the responsibility of the user, because what am I supposed to do? I’m supposed to go to the police and say, ‘Hey, can you find this anonymous account that’s posting these things?’ when a much simpler fix to this is just to turn off the faucet?” she said from her home in Manhattan.

She said she has been contacted by countless “distraught” women in recent days, many expressing concern over what the sexualised images might mean for their relationships and even future job prospects.

Grok has come under fire from regulators worldwide after it emerged it was being used to virtually undress images of women and children.

On Monday, Britain made it a criminal offence to create non-consensual intimate images after Ofcom opened a formal investigation into Grok’s AI chatbot. Meanwhile, French authorities launched an official investigation of X.

St Clair said: “This is probably the first time I’ve ever agreed with the UK on restricting certain content — they went overboard on other censorship on speech, with people having visits from police over social media posts, posts on immigration. But this is something altogether different and should be taken very seriously.”

No immediate action has been taken by President Trump’s administration, which Musk served briefly last year as head of its department of government efficiency, known as Doge.

“The day this scandal was breaking, [Musk] was having dinner with the president at Mar-a-Lago,” said St Clair. “So I think any president would be reluctant to take serious action against their dinner buddy.”

Musk at President Trump’s inauguration in January 2025

CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

Musk describes himself as a free speech absolutist, arguing during his bid to buy Twitter that it should be a “digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated”.

Research from groups like the Center for Countering Digital Hate, however, have documented a significant increase in hate speech on the platform including antisemitic, racist and sexist posts, as well as a rise in misinformation, since Musk relaxed the site’s content moderation.

St Clair said: “There’s been very public sentiment by the owner and his accolades that X is this town square. In no town square can you have public indecency like this — not only would you be arrested, but you would never be allowed 500 feet from a school. But this is somehow OK because it’s a robot doing it?

“At the very least [Musk] could end all of this by saying, ‘I’m really sorry that my robot made child porn and abuse material of women. And I’m sorry people were hurt by this’,” St Clair said. “But no one asks him to answer for any consequences of his very consequential behaviour.”

St Clair described the weaponisation of the Grok feature as inherently sexist and misogynist. “They are trying to expel women from the conversation. If you speak out, if you post a picture of yourself online, you are fair game for these people. The best way to shut a woman up is to abuse her.”

She also accused X of “amplifying the platforms of a particularly predatory and abusive subset of men”.

She said she was considering legal action in New York and believed it could be classed as revenge porn under the US Take It Down Act.

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“I want to set an example,” she said. “But I also hold a certain degree of empathy for those who are not ready or do not have the courage to take on a battle like that, because there is immense pain that comes with fighting any lever of power.”

The AI chatbot on X states that it forbids users to create content that sexualises children but does not have rules against generating sexual images of adults.

It said: “We take action against illegal content on X, including child sexual abuse material, by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary. Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment on claims made by St Clair in her interview with The Times.

St Clair, who previously served as an ambassador for the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, announced on social media in September 2024 that she had secretly given birth to her son after a brief affair with Musk.

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Musk had begun messaging St Clair on X when she was a journalist at the Babylon Bee, a conservative satirical website, and first met for an interview arranged by St Clair in San Francisco.

She told The Wall Street Journal that the so-called pronatalist had told her in their conversations that he wanted to create a “legion” of children to do his part to reverse the declining global birth decline. St Clair shared his concerns.

In February, St Clair filed a petition for sole custody of Romulus, claiming Musk was not present at his birth and “has met him only three times and has had no involvement in his care”.

The Tesla businessman is the father of St Clair’s child

MARIO ANZUONI/REUTERS

However, the SpaceX founder declared on Monday he would be fighting for sole custody, apparently in reaction to comments made by St Clair on the site days earlier.

St Clair, author of the 2022 book Elephants Are Not Birds, which mocked the concept of gender fluidity, has in the past made disparaging remarks about trans people. She expressed remorse over the weekend in an apology on X.

When asked about her past “blatant transphobia”, St Clair wrote, “I feel immense guilt for my role … [I don’t really know] how to make amends for many of these things but I have been trying incredibly hard privately to learn and advocate for those within the trans community that I’ve hurt.

“The right might label it fierce or patriotic, but I was just mean a lot of times. I read some of my old posts and I feel very dissociated from it,” she said. “I don’t want to drink the Kool-Aid any more.”

She specifically mentioned Musk’s estranged trans daughter, Vivian, 21, whose mother is his ex-wife Justine Wilson. Musk has said Vivian’s transition and estrangement from him were caused by external “woke” ideologies.

“I think I’ve had several very large life experiences, including motherhood, that have caused me to look at things a different way,” St Clair told The Times about her change of opinion. “I also got off the internet for a while and lived real life and did a lot of work to understand and consume things that I was told were off limits for quite some time.”

Despite the very public — and at times — ugly battle with Musk, she said she is much happier than ever.

“These trolls have this fantasy of women being miserable. They say X, Y, Z about me. In reality I’m sitting here making dinosaur-shaped sandwiches for my kid and dancing around the kitchen,” she said. “I’m very content with the love I have in my life.”