Ashley St. Clair, the mother of Elon Musk's known 13th child and a U.S. internet celebrity writer, sued Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI on Thursday. She alleges the company was negligent in allowing users of its AI tool Grok to create deepfake images of her in sexually suggestive poses. The lawsuit further claims that after she complained, xAI failed to adequately restrict such activities, causing her significant emotional distress.
For several weeks prior, Grok had faced increasing criticism for its ability to generate non-consensual deepfake images. A specific feature enables users to remove clothing from photos uploaded to the service, often replacing it with bikinis or underwear. St. Clair's lawsuit was initially filed in a New York state court but was transferred to the federal Southern District of New York at xAI's request.
The lawsuit states that St. Clair notified xAI that a user had created illegal deepfake photos of her. These allegedly included images of "her as a child stripped naked and wearing only a bikini" and "her as an adult posing in a sexually suggestive manner." She demanded that Grok be prevented from producing such non-consensual images.
Although Grok allegedly confirmed that "her image would not be used or altered in any future versions or responses without explicit consent," the suit contends that xAI continued to allow users to create more explicit AI-generated images of her. Instead of addressing the issue, xAI is accused of retaliating by revoking the advertising privileges of her X account.
On Thursday, xAI countersued St. Clair in a federal court in Texas, alleging she violated xAI's terms of service and seeking damages exceeding $75,000. xAI's filing asserts that any claims against the company must be brought in either the federal Northern District of Texas or a state court in Tarrant County, Texas.
Last week, X Corp. restricted the functionality of the "Grok reply bot," seemingly preventing it from generating images that place identifiable individuals in revealing swimwear or underwear without their consent. However, as of the report, these features reportedly remained active on the standalone Grok application, the Grok website, and within the dedicated "Grok" tab on the X platform.
Grok has been generating a high volume of sexually suggestive AI images for weeks, with researchers noting last week that it was producing thousands of images per hour. Many of these images have been publicly shared on the X platform.
The emergence and proliferation of these non-consensual pornographic images have triggered a global response. This includes multiple government investigations and calls for smartphone app marketplaces to ban or restrict the X application. Despite this, regulators and other tech companies have not yet imposed restrictions on the app.
On Wednesday local time, the California Attorney General launched an investigation into Grok. Concurrently, California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X, stating: "xAI's decision to create and provide a platform that fosters the spread of non-consensual pornographic deepfakes, including digital nudity of children, by perpetrators is utterly reprehensible."
St. Clair's lawsuit argues that Grok's feature allowing users to create non-consensual deepfakes is defectively designed. The company, it claims, should have foreseen that the feature would be used to harass individuals by publishing content with illegal material.
The lawsuit contends that individuals depicted in these deepfakes, including St. Clair, have suffered extreme distress.
The filing states: "The defendant's conduct is extremely vile, shocking, and transcends the bounds of basic morality, being utterly intolerable in a civilized society."
Comments