• Elon Musk announces plans for a kid-friendly AI app called Baby Grok, but offers no further details on functionality.
• The move follows backlash against Grok’s controversial outputs and growing competition from Google’s child-focused Gemini chatbot.
• Experts and regulators warn of privacy risks and misinformation as AI tools increasingly target children and education settings.

Baby Grok

On July 20th 2025, Elon Musk announced on X that his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, will develop an app dedicated to kid-friendly content. He further states that it will be called Baby Grok. However, in his announcement he does not state any further details about the app. Many are arguing that this new ‘kid-safe’ chatbot is Musk’s attempt to clean up Grok’s controversial reputation. 

This comes after Google announced that it is developing a children’s version of Gemini focused on education without ads or data collection. Furthermore, it seeks to design to help with homework, answer questions, and create stories. 

The race to launch kid-friendly AI tools is raising concerns due to privacy concerns and the imperfect status of chatbots. This is because children may be unable to distinguish between correct and incorrect information. Additionally, they are unable to understand how their data is being collected or used. 

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has called on governments to regulate the use of GenAI in education and research, including age limits for users. It is also calling for guardrails on data protection and user privacy.

Controversy

xAI recently won a contract of up to USD 200 million with the US Department of Defense along with other major AI developers. The deal is for developing and implementing artificial intelligence tools for the agency. This has been a cause of concern to critics who state the chatbot has continuously made headlines for its controversial and offensive output. 

For instance, Grok sparked controversy recently after complaints from X users that Grok produced content with antisemitic tropes. Another instance, was in Maay when there were widespread reports that the Grok chatbot made claims about a genocide against white citizins in South Africa. Musk’s xAI responded that this was due to an unauthorized change to the artificial intelligence bot.

The AI chatbot also sparked controversy with the launch of its AI companions earlier in July 2025. Furthermore, many have raised concerns about the oversexualization of the characters.