Noah Feldman, Columnist

Grok Fakes Are Digital Assault. Make Them a Crime

February 13, 2026 at 10:30 AM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

It should be illegal to use a person’s photo to create a fake image intended to depict that person. — It should be illegal to use a person’s photo to create a fake image intended to depict that person.
Photographer: Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images

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The horrifying episode in which Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot generated and posted millions of sexualized images of real people, including women and children, has a clear lesson: It should be illegal to use anyone’s photograph to create a fake image intended to depict that person.

Last summer, Congress passed the Take It Down Act, which prohibits posting deep fakes that depict people engaged in intimate sexual acts. Now Congress should expand the the act to cover any misappropriation of a person's likeness.