Topics: Elon Musk, Sydney Sweeney, Twitter
Elon Musk's bizarre obsession with actor Sydney Sweeney took an even weirder turn this week, after the billionaire Tesla founder and X owner created a video of her using AI and shared it with his 230 million followers.
Sweeney's likeness was used by the richest man on Earth to promote the latest iteration of his in-house AI on X, formerly Twitter, and its improved audio and longer video format.
There was no indication that he had been given permission to use her likeness in the AI-made video, which essentially functioned as a free advert for the tool that was viewed more than 48 million times.
It is not the first time either that Musk, who is worth around $775 billion in part due to the AI boom, has zoned in on the Christy actor recently. Six weeks ago, he posted a meme about how Sweeney's breasts must cause her back pain, which many described as a really 'weird' thing to say.
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The Grok-fabricated video, which oddly shows Sweeney speaking to Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page on a spaceship, begins with the actor publicizing the social media company's improved AI features.
This latest leap forward into dystopia begins with AI-Sweeney saying: "So let me get this straight. Grok videos are now 10 seconds, and the audio is greatly improved?" To which AI-Page responds: "Yeah, pretty much... Do you like it?"
Many of the paid-for X users replying to the billionaire praised his AI tool, but lots of free users had sharper words for the tech oligarch. One said his frequent references to the actor was 'Elon musk's way of flirting with Sydney Sweeney'.
Another turned X's AI tool on Musk, changing the audio so that Sweeney is saying: "So let me get this straight, Elon admitted that Trump was in the Epstein Files and then deleted the tweet?"
What makes this video even stranger is that it was not made by Musk but one of the site's users, and they did not even mention Sweeney in their prompt to the AI.
This implies that, just like its owner, Musk's AI tool Grok also has a... predisposition towards the A-list actor.
The prompt used on Grok to get the original AI video was:
The major upgrade to Grok comes just two weeks after the Tesla CEO was forced to roll back a major AI feature that his app's users were using to virtually undress women and create child abuse images.
Announcing an investigation into the proliferation of sexual material on the platform, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said this month: "The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking.
"This material, which depicts women and children in nude and sexually explicit situations, has been used to harass people across the internet. I urge xAI to take immediate action to ensure this goes no further."
