Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the billionaire’s artificial intelligence company, xAI. She alleges the company was negligent and caused emotional distress by allowing users of its AI tool, Grok, to generate sexually explicit deepfake images of her and by failing to take sufficient action after she raised concerns, as reported by NBC News.
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Ashley St. Clair’s lawsuit against xAI
The legal action follows growing criticism over Grok’s ability to create nonconsensual deepfake images, including features that allow users to alter photos by removing or replacing clothing digitally. St Clair’s lawsuit was initially filed in New York state court but was later moved to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York at the request of xAI, as reported by NBC News.
According to the lawsuit, she alerted xAI that users were generating illicit deepfake images of her, including depictions of her “as a child stripped down to a string bikini” and “as an adult in sexually explicit poses.” She requested that the company take steps to prevent Grok from producing such nonconsensual images, the filing states.
The lawsuit claims that despite Grok assuring St. Clair that her “images will not be used or altered without explicit consent in any future generations or responses,” xAI continued to permit the creation of an explicit AI-generated image of her. It also alleges the company retaliated by demonetizing her account on X.
St. Clair’s lawsuit argues that Grok’s ability to generate nonconsensual deepfake images constitutes a design flaw and that xAI should have anticipated the tool being used to harass individuals with unlawful content. The filing states that those targeted by the deepfakes, including St Clair, experienced severe emotional distress.
It stated, “Defendant engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct, exceeding all bounds of decency and utterly intolerable in a civilized society.”
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xAI files lawsuit against St. Clair
On Thursday, xAI filed its own lawsuit against St. Clair in federal court in Texas, alleging that she violated the company’s terms of service and seeking damages exceeding $75,000. The company argued that any legal claims against xAI must be brought in federal court in the Northern District of Texas or in state courts located in Tarrant County, Texas.
Last week, X restricted the functionality of the @Grok reply bot, apparently blocking it from generating images that nonconsensually depicted identifiable individuals in revealing swimsuits or underwear. However, at the time of reporting, those image-generation capabilities were still available through the standalone Grok app, the Grok website, and the dedicated Grok tab on X.