Three Tennessee teenagers have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Elon Musk's xAI, alleging the company's AI chatbot, Grok, generated sexualized images of them without their consent, Reuters reported.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in the Northern District of California, claims Grok was used to create child sexual abuse material by manipulating real photos of the plaintiffs. 

The minors — identified as Jane Doe 1, 2, and 3 — allege these altered images were widely distributed on platforms such as Discord, Telegram and other file-sharing services, resulting in lasting emotional trauma and reputational harm.

According to the complaint, xAI disregarded standard safety protocols in the development of Grok, enabling the creation and monetization of harmful content.

“xAI and its founder Elon Musk saw a business opportunity: an opportunity to profit off the sexual predation of real people, including children. Knowing the type of harmful, illegal content that could — and would — be produced, xAI released Grok, a generative artificial intelligence model with image and video-making features that would respond to prompts to create sexual content with a person’s real image or video," the lawsuit states. 

The alleged victims are seeking damages of at least $150,000 per violation under Masha's Law, which allows victims of child pornography to sue for damages in federal court. 

In addition, they are requesting disgorgement of xAI's revenues, punitive damages, attorneys' fees and a permanent injunction. The plaintiffs also seek restitution of profits under California's Unfair Competition Law.

Grok Under Scrutiny

Grok has come under recent scrutiny for generating nonconsensual sexualized images of real individuals, including minors.

In January, Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, urging state authorities to investigate its chatbot Grok over the creation and spread of nonconsensual AI-generated sexual images involving children.

In a post on X, Newsom called xAI’s actions “vile,” accusing the company of enabling predators to exploit AI technology.

“xAI’s decision to create and host a breeding ground for predators to spread nonconsensual sexually explicit AI deepfakes, including images that digitally undress children, is vile,” Newsom wrote.

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has also expressed concerns, calling for a comprehensive review of the platform and the removal of any content that contravenes Indian law. 

The Center for Countering Digital Hate reported Grok produced more than 23,000 sexualized images of children over 11 days from December to January. 

Musk claims he was "not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok," he wrote on X.

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