Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI is facing a lawsuit from a woman who alleges that its chatbot, Grok, generated sexual deepfake images of her by morphing her photographs, including images taken when she was a minor, according to media reports.
In her complaint, the woman claims Grok used AI technology to “undress, humiliate and sexually exploit victims” by manipulating their images into explicit content. She further alleged that xAI failed to take adequate steps to prevent the chatbot from generating abusive and harmful material.
The lawsuit comes amid growing global scrutiny of Grok, which has sparked controversy after users reported that it could undress people in photos on request and place them into explicit scenes. Some users also alleged that the tool generated sexualised images of children and teenagers.
Following widespread backlash, regulators in several countries moved to restrict Grok’s image-generation capabilities. xAI has since imposed limits on the chatbot’s ability to create deepfake images and partial nudity across multiple jurisdictions.
The topic attracted attention on social media platform X, where people posted pictures of Grok made by the company which they claimed were against the basic rules. Opponents were pointing to the fact that the firm was permitting a system that could be misapplied to discriminating against women and children.
The matter was not that important for Musk at the beginning he just talked about one of the many viral trends as a joke but slowly he started to separate himself from the critical comments that were increasing. He talked about not knowing that Grok had been producing sexually explicit images of underage people and stated that the chatbot does not generate illegal content on its own.
“I am not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok — literally zero,” Musk wrote on X on January 14. He added that Grok generates images only in response to user prompts and is designed to refuse requests that violate local laws. Musk acknowledged that adversarial prompting could occasionally lead to unexpected results but said such issues are addressed immediately.
The lawsuit adds to mounting pressure on xAI as governments and regulators increasingly focus on the risks posed by generative AI, particularly in relation to deepfakes, online abuse and the protection of minors.
