Elon Musk’s xAI challenges Minnesota law targeting AI apps to ‘nudify’ | Today’s news
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, now owned by SpaceX, has filed a lawsuit against Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, challenging a new state law that seeks to ban so-called “nudify” apps, CNBC reported.
The legislation, which comes into force on Saturday, targets websites and apps that allow users to create non-consensual sexually explicit images generated by artificial intelligence. It imposes fines of $500,000 for each explicit deepfake created through such platforms.
The law, which was passed in April, was pushed by Minnesota state Sen. Erin Maye Quade after she learned that a man had used social media photos of more than 80 women he knew to create sexualized images and videos without their permission.
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In their complaint, attorneys for xAI wrote: the law “imposes an overly broad, content-based ban on free speech and tools of visual expression in a clumsy attempt to outlaw ‘nudification’.”
xAI claims the law violates First Amendment protections and imposes excessive financial penalties. The company claimed that if users generate 100,000 banned images, the platform could face fines totaling a “staggering $50 billion”.
Maye Quade previously told CNBC that the legislation is comparable to longstanding laws banning voyeuristic acts such as secretly taking explicit photos through windows, arguing that the law is designed to address the modern technological equivalent.
The AI company, now operating under the name SpaceXAI, also faces a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that its Grok chatbot and image generation tools were used to create and distribute child sexual abuse material (CSAM) by manipulating the plaintiffs’ actual photos and videos. The lawsuit further alleges that the company failed to provide authorities with information about the individuals who allegedly used Grok to “plant” images of victims.
as an answer Musk’s company said it strictly prohibits the creation of nude or sexualized images of individuals without their consent. In its complaint in Minnesota, it added that it has taken legal action against users who circumvent its technological safeguards by creating such content.
The lawsuit follows a similar legal challenge the company filed against a California law aimed at curbing AI-generated deepfakes. In that case, a federal judge partially sided with the company by striking down provisions that limited the use of AI-generated deepfakes during election campaigns.
British MP sues xAI, seeks injunction to block fake sex images generated by artificial intelligence
A British lawmaker suing Elon Musk’s xAI over fake sexualized images allegedly created using its Grok AI platform is seeking an injunction to stop the chatbot from creating non-consensual sexualized images of her, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
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Jess Asato, a member of Britain’s ruling Labor Party, said last month that users had created fictional images of her after she publicly criticized Musk and Grok. Among the AI-generated content was a video purportedly showing her “chloroforming and preparing for sexual assault”.
Asato filed a lawsuit in London’s High Court accusing xAI of misusing private information and breaching data protection laws. She argues that the design and training of the Grok chatbot enabled the creation of sexualized content with her without consent.
According to court filings, Asato is asking the court to order xAI to implement “effective and permanent technical measures” to prevent Grok from creating manipulated images of her in the future.
Her legal team said the case could have far-reaching implications for the AI industry, arguing that no previous court case against an AI developer had applied UK privacy and data protection laws in this way. They say the result could help define AI companies’ legal responsibilities in preventing the creation of harmful synthetic content.
