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Elon Musk’s xAI, now the owner space xsued Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, challenging a law banning so-called nudity apps in the state.
In a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Minnesota, xAI’s lawyers said the law “imposes broad, content-based prohibitions on tools of free speech and visual expression in a clumsy attempt to ban ‘nudity.'”
A Minnesota law that goes into effect Saturday targets apps and websites that allow non-consensual sexual images to be generated, imposing a $500,000 fine for each explicit deepfake a user creates. The law, passed in April, was spearheaded by Minnesota Sen. Erin Mae Quaid, who learned of a man who had used social media photos to create sexual images and videos of more than 80 female acquaintances without their consent.
xAI’s lawyers argued that the law violates First Amendment protections, saying the penalties are too severe and that the companies whose users created the 100,000 banned images could suffer an “eye-popping $50 billion” in damages.
Mae Quaid told CNBC in September that the proposed bill is similar to an old law that prohibited peering into windows to take explicit photos.
SpaceXAI, now known as Artificial Intelligence Business, is facing a proposed class action lawsuit from plaintiffs who claim that the company’s Grok AI chatbot and image generator were used to create and share child sexual abuse material (CSAM) based on actual photos and videos. The complaint also alleges that xAI did not share information with authorities about the suspects whose images were “undressed” using Grok.
Musk’s company claims it “strictly prohibits” users from creating nude or sexual images of people without their consent. The company said in its complaint in Minnesota that it filed suit against users who “circumvented extensive technical blockers to generate such violating images.”
The company filed a similar lawsuit challenging a California law aimed at blocking AI-generated content, or “deepfake” content, in the state. Early efforts were partially successful, as a federal judge struck down a law restricting AI-generated deepfakes during elections.
clock: Astonishing growth of “nudify” apps
