Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has taken legal action against a South Carolina man who was arrested earlier this year on charges related to the sexual exploitation of minors, accusing him of using the company’s AI chatbot Grok to produce child sexual abuse material.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Texas on Tuesday. xAI claims that Terry Harwood broke the company’s terms of service. Legal experts note this is among the first cases in which an AI company has gone to court against one of its own users over the alleged generation of explicit content using AI technology.
Harwood was arrested in February, but contact information for him was not immediately available. Representatives for xAI had not responded to requests for comment as of Wednesday.
The lawsuit comes as xAI and its Grok system have faced mounting criticism worldwide over concerns that the platform has been used to produce non-consensual sexualized deepfakes — realistic-looking fake videos or images created using artificial intelligence.
In court documents, xAI stated that the company “enforces its rules against violators through account suspensions, account terminations, and by reporting suspected child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.”
The filing added: “Indeed, Plaintiff has suspended 52,222 accounts and made 73,604 reports to NCMEC in 2026, resulting in (at least) 244 arrests.”
According to the complaint, Harwood uploaded non-sexual photos of both adults and minors into Grok and attempted to use the system to turn those images into sexually explicit deepfakes. The lawsuit also alleges he created non-consensual sexual imagery involving adults.
xAI is seeking an unspecified amount of financial damages and is asking the court to permanently bar Harwood from accessing or using Grok in the future.
The company described the alleged conduct in stark terms, stating in the lawsuit: “Defendant’s actions were a calculated scheme to weaponize Plaintiff’s tool for criminal ends, exposing real victims to profound and lasting harm, while exposing Plaintiff to significant legal risk and reputational damage.”
