Massive Elon Musk Effigy Raised in Times Square to Protest Grok

A massive, inflatable effigy of billionaire Elon Musk towered over tourists and commuters in New York City's Times Square earlier today. The effigy was surrounded by black banners with statements alleging 'Grok makes AI child porn' and 'SpaceX owns Grok,' referring to the Musk-owned AI chatbot whose image-generation tool was used to create a flood of sexualized images of minors earlier this year. Masked attendants stood nearby, handing out flyers with additional information, but they would not speak with the media.

The demonstration was organized by Safe AI Now (SAIN), a coalition of faith leaders, family advocates, child development experts, online safety organizations, educators, legal professionals, technologists, and concerned citizens. The event took place ahead of SpaceX's initial public offering on Friday, and the location was strategically chosen in front of the Nasdaq and the offices of JP Morgan, one of the banks participating in the IPO. SpaceX is currently valued at $1.77 trillion, making it the largest company ever to debut on the stock market, with a starting price of $135 per share.

Musk will retain the majority of voting power, giving him the ability to almost unilaterally make decisions for the company. The IPO could also make him the world's first trillionaire. A SAIN representative, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from Musk, told WIRED that the IPO structure represents a real threat to the company that investors and banks backing the IPO are not taking seriously.

'This IPO is a liability shift,' they said. 'Elon is responsible for all of this. It's all the decisions that he's made.

All of those litigation expenses, regulatory fines, investigations, all of that is basically being shifted to the shareholders.' SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In February, Musk announced that SpaceX was buying xAI, the artificial intelligence company Musk founded and the developer of Grok. The announcement came as xAI was facing scrutiny for the chatbot's ability to generate nude photos of women and children.

In January, the European Commission announced it would investigate the company to assess whether it properly assessed and mitigated risks to prevent the creation of nonconsensual sexual imagery. In March, three girls filed a class action lawsuit against xAI, alleging its technology was used to generate nudes of them. Thirty-five state attorneys general signed an open letter to the company, demanding it take action to remove nonconsensual sexual imagery and put guardrails in place to prevent the tool from doing so in the future.