Elon Musk’s Grok AI ridiculed for botched edit of Cristiano Ronaldo and son’s photo

Elon Musk’s Grok 3, the AI sensation built into X (formerly Twitter), landed in hot water after a botched attempt to ‘beautify’ a photo of football legend Cristiano Ronaldo and his son. The incident, which unfolded on X late Sunday, has ignited a firestorm of ridicule, with users questioning the AI’s reliability and exposing flaws in its latest upgrade.

The controversy erupted when Grok responded to a user request to enhance a gym selfie posted by Ronaldo on June 15. The original image showed the 40-year-old star and his son striking identical poses, showcasing their chiselled physiques.

However, Grok’s edited version replaced their faces with unrecognisable strangers and bizarrely added an extra hand dangling below the son’s right arm.

pic.twitter.com/xUJPLXI0Fd

— Grok (@grok) June 15, 2025

Closer inspection reveals additional blunders, such as messing up the clock behind them and warping door signage. The result was an almost comical distortion that has since gone viral, amassing over 50,000 retweets and counting.

Public Backlash and Technical Scrutiny

X users didn’t hold back. Comments ranged from “Grok, are you okay?” to “Turned Ronaldo’s son into a four-armed alien!”

The blunder comes just weeks after xAI rolled out its Aurora model, praised for photorealistic rendering. Yet, this fiasco suggests the AI struggles with human facial recognition and spatial accuracy, a stark contrast to competitors like OpenAI’s DALL-E.

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Context Amid Ronaldo’s Career Shift

The timing also added to the mess. As of recent reports, Ronaldo distanced himself from the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup after Al-Nassr’s qualification flop, with the photo hinting at the footballer focusing on personal training. Grok’s edit, however, shifted the narrative to tech failure rather than fitness inspiration, amplifying the embarrassment.