Ahmedabad Times

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😖 A large inflatable Elon Musk popped up in Instances Sq. as a part of a protest towards Musk’s Grok AI. pic.twitter.com/BdLOB900iC

— TMZ (@TMZ) June 11, 2026

SpaceX, valued at $1.77 trillion, is getting ready for what has been described as the biggest IPO in US historical past. Reuters reported that the corporate priced its shares at $135 apiece, elevating an estimated $75 billion and bringing Musk a step nearer to changing into the world’s first trillionaire.

Why was the protest held?

The demonstration was organised by Secure AI Now (SAIN), a consulting and coaching agency based in 2022. Protesters gathered exterior the Nasdaq change and the workplaces of JPMorgan, one of many banks concerned within the providing, in an obvious try to attract buyers’ consideration to considerations over AI security.

On the centre of these considerations is Grok, xAI’s chatbot and image-generation software. Based on WIRED, protesters on the scene declined to talk publicly. Nevertheless, a consultant for SAIN instructed the publication that buyers risked overlooking broader questions of accountability amid the thrill surrounding the IPO.

“It’s very easy to get distracted by the shiny IPO information. And I believe that’s what they’re sort of hoping will occur,” the consultant instructed WIRED. “However there’s actual hurt, actual danger. I believe if we’re normalising it in all places—from the banks which can be underwriting it, to the NASDAQ that’s itemizing it, to the shareholders who’re shopping for into it—an organization that has this actually poisonous platform in Grok, normalising that sort of express imagery, there’s an actual downside.”

What are the considerations surrounding Grok?

The protest stems from wider considerations over Grok’s image-generation capabilities. Based on earlier reporting by WIRED, researchers estimated that Grok’s instruments had been used to generate thousands and thousands of sexualised photographs, together with photographs depicting obvious minors, after customers exploited gaps within the platform’s safeguards to govern images of actual folks.

Activists put 40‑ft inflatable topless Elon Musk in Instances Sq.

The balloon exhibits Musk shirtless with ‘SpaceX’s Grok Makes AI Baby Porn’ on his torso and ‘Ketamine’ on a coronary heart tattoo — the work of activist group Secure AI Now pic.twitter.com/2wSSuTeyL9

— RT (@RT_com) June 12, 2026

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The demonstration additionally comes amid rising scrutiny of the chatbot’s security measures. Reuters reported this week that Canada’s privateness commissioner discovered Grok’s image-generation function had violated federal privateness regulation after launching with out enough protections towards the creation and circulation of non-consensual sexualised deepfakes. The report added that xAI subsequently launched restrictions on the software.

Individually, TechCrunch, citing an evaluation by Widespread Sense Media earlier this 12 months, reported that the US-based non-profit had described Grok’s child-safety protections as “among the many worst we’ve seen” amongst mainstream AI chatbots, citing the benefit with which youthful customers might encounter express materials.

Neither SpaceX nor xAI instantly responded publicly to the Instances Sq. protest.

SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO

The protest unfolded towards the backdrop of SpaceX’s hovering ambitions and equally excessive investor expectations. In its IPO filings, the corporate outlined plans spanning satellite tv for pc growth, advances in synthetic intelligence and long-term targets tied to human settlement past Earth.

For SpaceX, the itemizing represents one other milestone in Musk’s sprawling enterprise empire. However the large inflatable effigy in Instances Sq. served as a reminder that as AI instruments turn out to be extra highly effective — and extra pervasive — questions round accountability and safeguards are unlikely to stay on the sidelines for lengthy.