Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, which develops the Grok chatbot, is being sued by teenagers who say its AI models were used to create non-consensual nudity.
Nicholas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images
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Nicholas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images
Three Tennessee teenagers have filed a class action lawsuit against Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, alleging that its large language models were used to power the app and create non-consensual nude and sexually explicit images and videos of young girls.
“Like a rag doll brought to life by the dark arts, this [AI-generated] Children can be manipulated into any pose, no matter how sick, no matter how fetishized, no matter how illegal. “To the viewer, the resulting video appears completely authentic; to the child, her identifying characteristics will be permanently affixed to the video depicting the sexual abuse of her own child,” the complaint says.
Although the perpetrators did not use xAI’s chatbot Grok or social media platform
The plaintiffs accuse xAI of intentionally licensing its technology to non-U.S. app makers, “in this way xAI may seek to outsource responsibility for its highly dangerous tools,” the complaint states.
This lawsuit marks the first time xAI has been sued by a minor depicted in child sexual abuse material allegedly generated by its models. xAI’s image generation tools have been implicated in creating sexually explicit images of millions of people over the past year. Earlier this year, influencer Ashley St. Clair, who has a child with Musk, sued the company over an AI-generated image on X that depicted her nude as a teenager.
According to the class action complaint, the perpetrators of the sexual images had a “close and friendly relationship” with one of the plaintiffs and created the images and videos using photos the plaintiffs had sent and collected from yearbooks and social media. One video showed one of the plaintiffs “undressing until he was completely naked.” The complaint alleged. Plaintiffs were disturbed by how lifelike the images and videos looked. Additionally, the material was not labeled as AI-generated, according to the complaint.
The perpetrators also created sexually explicit material of 18 other people and exchanged images of others online, according to the complaint. He was arrested, according to the complaint.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Vanessa Baer Jones said the teens, identified in the complaint as Jane Does 1, 2 and 3, want to change the way AI companies make business decisions about sexually explicit content.[a business decision] It no longer makes business sense,” she said.
The plaintiffs are seeking damages from the court for emotional distress and other harm caused by the images.
Apps with so-called nude features have existed in the shadows of the internet for years. But last year, major AI companies like Google, OpenAI, and xAI updated their image generation tools to allow users to pose in bikinis. But images created by Google and OpenAI contain digital watermarks that reveal the AI’s origin. So far, xAI has not adopted such standards.
xAI did not respond to requests for comment.
