xAI has asked a federal judge in Northern California to require four plaintiffs to proceed under their real names in a proposed class action tied to alleged Grok-made sexualized deepfakes.

The claimants argue public identification could amplify harassment risks and worsen the personal fallout described in sworn statements.

Court filings reported that the plaintiffs are currently listed as South Carolina Doe, South Carolina Roe, New Jersey Doe and Ohio Doe, and that they would share their identities with xAI while keeping pseudonyms for the public docket, Wired reported. 

Benzinga reached out to xAI and the plaintiffs attorneys but did not receive a response at the time of press.

xAI's attorneys argue that civil litigation generally requires parties to be named and said the public has an interest in knowing who is suing the company. They also contended the plaintiffs have not shown concrete threats of additional harm and pointed to the court handling the disputed images under seal.

"Factoring out the deepfake image itself — as it will remain under seal — there is nothing inherently stigmatizing about revealing the fact that a deepfake image was created of South Carolina Doe without revealing the image itself," xAI's lawyers wrote in a May 15 filing. "As a result, this case simply does not involve the types of compelling privacy interests traditionally recognized as requiring pseudonymity."

The plaintiffs submitted affidavits describing emotional harm and saying they may quit the case if forced to litigate under their legal names. The filings also state that the contested images were not attached to public court documents.

One plaintiff said an alleged manipulated image showed them "stripped down to a revealing bikini" and displayed their body "in a way that I would not ever share publicly." The same declaration added, "I was also overcome with disgust at the thought of what the individual who had asked Grok to create the deepfake was doing with the photo."

Another plaintiff, identified as New Jersey Doe, said he posted a photo of himself to his X account. He later noticed that Grok was creating deepfake images of others on the site and requested that "Grok not create images of me without my consent. He later found two alleged deepfake photos that were “essentially pornographic." He wrote that the request "brought my account to the attention of online trolls that were using Grok to harass and cause distress."

South Carolina Roe's filings allege explicit deepfakes were created depicting her as a child and include the statement, "Publicly identifying me would cause me untold harm." 

In a response filing, attorney Sophia Rios of Berger Montague urged the court to keep the pseudonyms in place and accused xAI of using the issue to pressure the plaintiffs to abandon the case. 

"Having stripped them of their clothes, xAI now seeks to strip Plaintiffs of their pseudonyms in an obvious effort to intimidate Plaintiffs into dropping the litigation by compounding the same harms that they seek to remedy," the lawsuit filing states.

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