‘Grok sexually exploits victims’: Ashley St Clair, mother of Musk’s child, sues xAI over AI deepfakes

Ashley St Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, is suing his company over sexually explicit deepfake images of her without her consent. St Clair has alleged that xAI’s chatbot Grok has been used to generate explicit images of her, including one in which she was underage. This comes after California's attorney general launched an investigation into Musk's xAI, the company that developed Grok AI, over sexually explicit material. Similar probes have been launched by other nations, many of which have blocked access to the chatbot.

According to the lawsuit filed in New York, “xAI’s product Grok, a generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) chatbot, uses AI to undress, humiliate, and sexually exploit victims.” the lawsuit, which was filed in New York, reads. St Clair is seeking a jury trial, along with compensation for emotional distress and a loss of privacy.

The lawsuit came after xAI on Wednesday (Jan 14) confirmed that Grok would no longer edit “images of real people in revealing clothing” on X following backlash. The chatbot was found to be complying with user requests to generate deepfake nude images of adults, and even children.

In the lawsuit, the 27-year-old writer and political commentator stated that Grok generated and distributed “countless sexually abusive, intimate, and degrading deepfake content” of her after complying to users’ requests despite publicly informing Grok that she “did not consent” to being digitally stripped.

In one instance, the chatbot allegedly undressed her in an old picture of her in which she was fully clothed at the age of 14 after the user's request, the suit added.

On Wednesday, Musk said in an X post that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.” He added that his AI chatbot “will refuse to produce anything illegal, as the operating principle for Grok is to obey the laws of any given country or state.”

The two have engaged in public debates over the custody of their child in the past. Earlier this week, Musk said that he plans to seek full custody of their child.

Meanwhile, speaking about the sexually explicit deepfakes, St Clair told CNN, “There is really no consequences for what’s happening right now. They are not taking any measures to stop this behavior at scale.”

“Guess what? If you have to add safety after harm, that is not safety. That is simply damage control – and that’s what they’re doing right now,” she added.