Grok rolls out AI video creator for X with bonus “spicy” mode

• X’s AI video maker Grok Imagine is live for SuperGrok and Premium+ subscribers
• Grok Imagine turns prompts into looping six-second clips
• The tool includes a controversial “spicy mode” for some NSFW content

xAI is pushing out the Grok Imagine AI video maker to those willing to pay for a SuperGrok or Premium+ subscription. Assuming you’ve paid your $30 or $35 a month, respectively, you can access Imagine in the Grok app under its own tab and turn prompts into short video clips. These last for around six seconds and include synced sound. You can also upload static images and animate them into looping clips.

Grok Imagine is another addition to the increasingly competitive AI video space, including OpenAI’s Sora, Google’s Veo 3, Runway, and more. Having audio built in also helps the tool, as sound is still not a universally available feature in all AI video tools.

To stand out, Elon Musk is encouraging people to think of it as “AI Vine,” tying the new tool to the classic and long-defunct short-form video platform for Twitter, itself a vanished brand name.

However, this isn’t just nostalgia for 2014 social media. The difference is that it’s a way to blend active creation and passive scrolling.

Spicy Grok

One potentially heated controversy around Grok Imagine is the inclusion of a “spicy mode” allowing for a limited amount of more explicit content generation. While the system includes filters and moderation to prevent actual nudity or anything sexual, users can still experiment with suggestive prompts.

Musk himself posted a video of a scantily clad angel made with Grok Imagine. It provoked quite a few angry and upset responses from users on X. xAI insists guardrails are in place, but that hasn’t stopped some early testers from trying to break them.

xAI is keen to promote Grok Imagine as a way to make AI video accessible for everyone, from businesses crafting ads to teachers animating lessons. Still, there are understandable concerns about whether an AI platform that was only recently in hot water for outright pro-Nazi statements can be trusted to share video content without getting into more hot water. That goes double for the filters for the spicy content.

You might also like

• xAI debuts powerful Grok 4 AI model, but it’s not going to make people forget the antisemitism it spewed on X
• I tried Grok’s new AI image editing features – they’re fun but won’t replace Photoshop any time soon
• Grok 3’s voice mode is unhinged, and that’s the point