An unflattering 40-foot inflatable depicting a chubby, spotty Elon Musk has mysteriously appeared in Times Square.
“SpaceX’s Grok makes child porn” is emblazoned across the hairy, pimped chest of the grinning likeness of Musk, who is set to become the world’s first trillionaire. This is a reference to a controversy surrounding X’s artificial intelligence chatbot, whose ability to edit images was seized upon by bad actors, who used it to doctor images of children in a disgusting fashion earlier this year.
The inflatable is plonked in the middle of Times Square, right outside Morgan Stanley’s global HQ. Its presence appears to be timed with Musk floating SpaceX on the stock market.
The morbid inflatable depicts Musk, 54, with tattoos, one of which shows a heart wrapped in a banner that reads “ketamine,” an apparent nod to reports about the tech titan’s abuse of the substance.
There are also barriers carrying the messages ‘SpaceX owns Grok,’ and ‘Grok makes AI child porn.’
CBS News reporter Jared Ochacher went to the site to try to crack the case. “I asked the people working here questions like, ‘Who hired you?’ and ‘Is it a company or a person behind this?’ but they wouldn’t say anything,” Ochacher said in a video on Musk’s social media site, X.
“They told me they’ve been directed to stand here for the day and hand out flyers like these with similar talking points as the signs, and a QR code that takes you to Grok’s website.”
The Daily Beast asked activist group Everyone Hates Elon, whose mission statement is to “p--- him off, one small action at a time,” whether it was behind the grotesque effigy. A spokesperson denied involvement.
The Guardian reported that it was created by the Safe AI Now (SAIN) coalition. “The enormous inflatable of Musk is meant to draw attention to a serious issue: SpaceX’s Grok has been widely used to generate illicit images of real people—including children,” the organization said in a statement.
“While this inflatable is a fitting metaphor—much like Musk and his companies, it is inflated, full of hot air, and could pop at any minute—it serves as a warning to investors eager to buy into Musk’s SpaceX IPO on Friday morning. Because the reality is, shareholders’ investment in SpaceX means financially supporting a company that has been involved in child exploitation, revenge porn, and worse.”
It comes after SpaceX announced on Thursday an initial public offering at $135 per share, valuing the company at $1.77 trillion.
Musk’s stake in SpaceX is valued at roughly $867 billion based on the IPO valuation. His stake in Tesla is worth hundreds of billions more. Combined, the value of his SpaceX and Tesla holdings exceeds $1.1 trillion.
The catch is that most of this wealth isn’t cash sitting in a bank account. It’s tied up in stock. If SpaceX or Tesla shares fell sharply, his net worth would decline as well.
SpaceX has been approached for comment.
