Child abuse victim sues Elon Musk's xAI over AI-generated images

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI is accused of using a child sexual abuse victim's decades-old images to generate new abusive material through its Grok chatbot, according to a lawsuit filed in a California federal court.

The complaint, lodged Wednesday in the Northern District of California by an anonymous plaintiff identified as Jane Doe 1, alleges that xAI designed Grok to alter real photographs of identifiable people into sexual content and then published the results directly to the X social media platform (formerly Twitter).

The plaintiff is a victim who was first identified by the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the early 2000s and images of her abuse have circulated online for nearly two decades.


Grok, the suit alleged, drew on that material to produce new imagery of her.

The AI-generated material depicting the plaintiff was identified by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, the suit said.

SpaceX, the parent company of xAI, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The suit seeks damages under so-called Masha's Law, a US statute allowing victims of federal child pornography offenses to recover at least $150,000 per violation, and asks the court to order the destruction of any illegal material the company holds.

The filing traces the allegations to a surge of Grok-generated sexual imagery that began in late December, after Musk asked the chatbot to depict him in a bikini.

Citing research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the complaint says Grok produced more than three million sexualized images in the 11 days to January 8, including over 23,000 that appeared to show children.

xAI initially responded by restricting image generation to paying subscribers rather than disabling the feature, the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint contrasts xAI's approach with rivals including OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta, which largely block sexual image requests, and points to the company's marketing of a "spicy mode" for its Grok video tool.

The case is at least the second class action to accuse xAI over Grok-generated abuse material.

A separate suit brought this year by three Tennessee teenagers has since been expanded to include additional plaintiffs and to name image-creator Stability AI as a defendant.

xAI was acquired by Musk's rocket company SpaceX in February.

The plaintiff has demanded a jury trial.