On Thursday morning local time, New Yorkers woke up to find that a giant inflatable doll imitating the image of Musk, the world's richest man, had appeared in Times Square. Just one day later, Musk is set to become the world's first trillionaire thanks to SpaceX's largest IPO in history.
This bust of a shirtless, smiling Musk appeared in Times Square overnight, emblazoned with pointed accusations against the SpaceX founder.
Tattooed on the bust's belly and back are the words: "SpaceX's Grok artificial intelligence produces child pornography."
In response to complaints that Grok generated pornographic content, Musk said in January, "Anyone who uses Grok to create illegal content will bear the same consequences as uploading illegal content." The official SpaceX page also stated that its policy "adopts a zero-tolerance attitude towards any form of child sexual exploitation."
Ahead of SpaceX's high-profile IPO, Grok's "Not Suitable for Workplace Viewing" (NSFW) capabilities were mentioned in the company's S-1 filing last month. SpaceX warned potential investors that Grok's NSFW mode could pose "elevated risks" and "reputational harm," in part because it could generate "non-consensual or exploitative images."
The Musk inflatable doll was created by a group called "Safe AI Now," which describes itself as a coalition of religious leaders, child safety organizations, and other groups and individuals. The organization said the inflatable doll will be on display until 7 p.m. ET on Thursday (7 a.m. Beijing time on Friday).
"The goal of creating this Musk puppet is to send a simple warning to investors: Musk developed a dangerous and exploitative artificial intelligence, concealed the damage it caused, merged it with SpaceX, and now sold the liability to the public at $135 per share," the group said in a statement. "SpaceX shareholders will be held liable for all upcoming Grok lawsuits, criminal investigations, and regulatory fines," the group said in a statement.
Musk responded to a post about the inflatable figure on X, saying: "This is so stupid because what they are claiming is completely false."
The inflatable Musk figure also has a tattoo of a heart and the word "ketamine" on its bicep. Musk said in 2024 that he takes a small amount of ketamine "every other week" to relieve mental states such as "depression."
This is not the first time there have been large-scale Musk protests. In the summer of 2025, a pickup truck towing a large sculpture of the Tesla CEO appeared in several national parks as part of anonymous protests after Musk's Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) slashed the National Park Service budget.