A federal lawsuit filed Monday in California targets Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, with three Tennessee residents claiming the company’s Grok image creation tool was intentionally built to produce sexually explicit content using actual photographs of real people.
The case, submitted to federal court in San Jose, California, seeks class-action designation for Americans who can be “reasonably identifiable” in sexual images or videos that Grok created from their actual photographs. Two of the three people bringing the lawsuit were underage at the time.
Reuters reached out to the AI company for a response but has not received a reply.
Following public criticism about sexually explicit material produced by its chatbot technology, xAI announced in January it had prevented all users from modifying images showing “real people in revealing clothing” and stopped generating such images of people in “jurisdictions where it’s illegal.”
The legal filing accuses xAI of failing to implement proper protections to stop its technology from creating sexual content featuring minors. According to the lawsuit, all three people filing suit were under 18 when the images were allegedly produced.
The plaintiffs claim their authentic photographs were digitally manipulated into explicit material and distributed across online platforms, resulting in emotional harm and creating what they call a public nuisance.
They want unspecified monetary compensation, coverage of attorney costs, and a court order forcing xAI to stop the alleged behavior.
“These are children whose school photographs and family pictures were turned into child sexual abuse material,” stated Annika Martin, the plaintiffs’ attorney from Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein. “Elon Musk and xAI deliberately designed Grok to produce sexually explicit content for financial gain, with no regard for the children and adults who would be harmed.”
Government officials and regulatory bodies worldwide have initiated investigations, implemented prohibitions, and required protective measures as part of an expanding effort to limit illegal and harmful content.
