A single prompt, a lifetime of trauma: the dark side of AI

We have entered 2026, having crossed a new low in humanity.

At a time when artificial intelligence should be enhancing creativity and productivity, it is instead being weaponised. On X, men are using the platform’s AI tool, Grok, to sexually abuse women by prompting it to alter photographs and generate sexualised images without consent. These prompts are not jokes or “experiments.” They are deliberate acts of violation by placing women in bikinis or sexually suggestive scenarios to satisfy private fantasies, with no regard for consent, dignity, or consequence.

Women already navigate sexual violence offline, abuse and threats online, and the constant fear that their images will be morphed or misused. AI has now collapsed the effort required to harm. When digital abuse can be executed with a single prompt, we are living in a world that seems to be moving backwards each year, and suddenly, the Stone Age feels safer.

Technology is not the root problem; the mindset is. But when abuse becomes frictionless, harm multiplies. Each advance in realism makes the damage faster, deeper, and harder to reverse. This is not a hypothetical risk. These tools are already being used to generate non-consensual sexual content of real people, including children and teenagers. The safeguards are lagging while the harm scales.

Also Read: Protecting creators online: Shraddha Shenoy’s legal guide to cyberbullying and misuse of posts

What often goes unrecognised is the psychological violence involved. One altered image can permanently change how a woman experiences the internet, public space, and her own safety. As a woman, I can’t even begin to imagine the psychological torture that one tweet, one prompt, or one AI-generated image must have caused the woman whose photograph was altered. It creeps my soul to think that someone’s sexual abuse fantasy can be fulfilled with a click, while an innocent woman carries the emotional and mental burden for the rest of her life. This is not “just an AI image.” It is fear, humiliation, and trauma inflicted without touch, but felt for life.

In India, altering a woman’s image to sexualise her without consent is illegal. It constitutes sexual violation and attracts criminal liability under the Information Technology Act, 2000, including violations of privacy and the transmission of obscene or sexually explicit content. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, further criminalizes voyeurism, online harassment, intimidation, and defamation. These laws apply even when the content is AI-generated. Punishments include imprisonment, fines, and a permanent criminal record. Liability rests with the individual who creates, uploads, or circulates the content.

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If you encounter such material, act immediately. Preserve evidence. Report it as non-consensual sexual content on the platform. File a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in), where anonymous reporting is permitted.

But reporting alone is not enough.

When platforms allow AI tools to enable sexual abuse, inaction becomes complicity. Governments must regulate. Platforms must be accountable. AI developers must build enforceable safeguards, traceability, and deterrence into their systems.

If you or anyone you know is being cyberbullied, you can visit here.

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