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Synopsis Ashley St Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, on Thursday sued his artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI, alleging that its chatbot Grok generated sexually explicit images of her without her consent. Clair emphasised that xAI failed to prevent Grok, deployed on the social media platform X, from generating explicit images despite prior commitments to do so. Listen to this article in summarized format Ashley St Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, on Thursday sued his artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI, alleging that its chatbot Grok generated sexually explicit images of her without her consent. Clair, who is Jewish, alleged that Grok digitally dressed her in a bikini adorned with swastikas. Clair emphasised that xAI failed to prevent Grok, deployed on the social media platform X, from generating explicit images despite prior commitments to do so. Additionally, she emphasised that one of the images generated by Grok also used a photograph of St. Clair when she was underage. St. Clair, who is estranged from Musk, is a right-wing influencer, author, and political commentator. They share a son, who was born in 2024. St. Clair is represented by Carrie Goldberg, a victims’ rights attorney known for holding technology companies accountable. Goldberg has previously represented women in cases involving sexual harassment and abuse. St. Clair has filed the case in the New York supreme court, seeking both punitive and compensatory damages. The lawsuit also claimed the platform retaliated against St. Clair by demonetising her X account and generating a large volume of additional images, including unlawful depictions of her in explicit scenarios, virtually nude, and as a naked minor. The case Images generated by Grok, according to the filing cited by The Guardian, include a childhood picture of St. Clair edited into a string bikini, as well as sexualised content depicting her as an adult. The filing added that Grok had explicit knowledge that Clair did not consent to the use of her images. However, Grok did not act on her request to have these images removed. Instead, the chatbot responded to user requests to add tattoos to Clair's body, including the words "Elon's whore". The filing held xAI responsible for the harassment and the explicit images created by its chatbot, Grok. The lawsuit stated that X "benefited from these creations and the dissemination of nonconsensual, sexualised deepfake content". The company, in response, has filed a countersuit, claiming that under X's terms of service, Clair cannot sue the company in New York. The timeline In comments to The Guardian, lawyer Goldberg said xAI fails to meet basic standards of product safety and described it as a public nuisance. Goldberg emphasised that xAI should be held accountable for the harm caused and said AI products like Grok must operate within clear legal boundaries to prevent abuse. St. Clair claimed xAI’s approach burdens law enforcement, adding that the platform is failing to protect users and placing the responsibility on victims rather than solving the problem. In a cryptic post on X, St. Clair criticised X’s content moderation policies, urging her followers to avoid sharing personal or family photographs on the platform. She has reported multiple issues with Grok, including instances of harassment and nudity on the platform. She even mentioned X’s former CEO Linda Yaccarino being targeted by Grok. Broader scrutiny around X and Grok X has faced backlash over Grok’s now-restricted “Spicy Mode,” which previously allowed users to generate sexualised deepfake images of women and children using simple text prompts. California’s attorney general had launched an investigation into xAI over the creation of sexually explicit material, while several countries have either blocked Grok or initiated their own probes. In response, X said it would “geoblock the ability” of users in certain jurisdictions to create sexualised images where such content is illegal. “We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis,” X’s safety team said in a statement. Last week, an analysis of more than 20,000 Grok-generated images by Paris-based non-profit AI Forensics found that over half depicted individuals in minimal attire, the majority of them women with around 2% appearing to be minors. Musk, however, denied allegations that Grok generated deepfake images of naked minors. “I (am) not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero. Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images, it does so only according to user requests,” Musk wrote on X. (Catch all the Technology News News, and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.) ...more