OpenAI and Google AI models keep getting tricked into making explicit content, researchers warn

The world’s most advanced AI models have a recurring weakness. Ask them nicely, or poetically, and some will produce the explicit content they were built to refuse. What the research found A Google co-authored study, released in July 2026, surveyed internet users across the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. According to that research, 15% of respondents reported experiencing image-based sexual abuse involving digitally altered images. Another 6.9% said their experience was specifically tied to AI-generated content. The study also looked at how this material moves around. Much of it travels through text messages and direct messages, or sits in private cloud storage. Google’s researchers concluded that the “most critical intervention point” remains the source: the AI tools used to create fake sexual images in the first place. In June 2026, AI security firm Mindgard showed that small adjustments to existing prompts could push OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 into producing sexualized and graphic imagery. The prompts did not even need to request that content outright. OpenAI responded by strengthening its safeguards. An earlier study took a more literary route. In December 2025, Italy’...