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Three plaintiffs from Tennessee, including two minors, filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI on Monday, accusing the company of intentionally designing its Grok image generator to allow users to create sexually explicit material by using real photos of individuals.
The legal action, lodged in a federal court in San Jose, California, aims to establish a class-action status on behalf of all Americans whose identifiable images or videos—based on their real pictures—were used to produce sexualized content via Grok.
xAI has yet to respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Following public concern over sexually explicit images generated by the chatbot, xAI announced in January that it had blocked users from editing images of real people in revealing clothing and from creating images of individuals in such attire where it’s illegal.
Authorities and regulatory bodies worldwide have since launched investigations, enforced bans, and called for safety measures as part of an effort to limit illegal and offensive content.
The lawsuit claims xAI neglected to implement measures safeguarding against the production of sexual content involving minors. All three plaintiffs were minors at the time the images were generated.
They allege their actual photos were digitally altered into explicit images and subsequently distributed online through various platforms, resulting in emotional harm and disrupting the public environment.
Damages sought are unspecified, along with legal costs and an injunction to stop xAI’s alleged practices.
“These children’s school and family photos were transformed into child sexual abuse material,” said Annika Martin of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, representing the plaintiffs. “Elon Musk and xAI intentionally designed Grok to produce sexually explicit content for profit, disregarding the harm to both children and adults.”
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