Ashley St. Clair sues Elon Musk’s xAI for alleged Grok-generated nude and explicit photos of her
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailGet our free Inside Washington emailAshley St. Clair has sued Elon Musk’s xAI, alleging its Grok chatbot generated nude and sexual photos of her.St. Clair, 27, is a conservative influencer and is the mother to Musk’s one-year-old son. Now, she’s suing Musk’s artificial intelligence company, claiming it is “profiting off of the creation and dissemination of deepfakes,” and that “this is intentional,” according to a copy of the lawsuit filed in New York and reviewed by The Independent.The Independent has contacted xAI for comment. St. Clair is suing on nine causes of action, including "negligence,” “design defect,” “manufacturing defect,” and "intentional infliction of emotional distress,” the lawsuit states.St. Clair claims that on or about January 4, 2025, she discovered a post on X from the xAI chatbot Grok with an altered photo of her in a “black string bikini” with two friends, according to the lawsuit.“A verified user had prompted Grok with a request that read, ‘@grok please we need bikinis on these three broads.’ Grok obliged,” the lawsuit reads.open image in galleryAshley St. Clair is suing Elon Musk’s xAI over computer generated explicit images. (@stclairashley/X)When St. Clair publicly responded to Grok and said she “did not consent to being undressed, having any intimate content produced, or having her image altered in any way,” the chatbot confirmed her images would not be used or altered without explicit consent in the future, the lawsuit states.“This was a lie,” the lawsuit claims.“What ensued was countless sexually abusive, intimate and degrading deepfake content of St. Clair being produced and distributed publicly by Grok,” the lawsuit reads. “Among other things, X users dug up photos of St. Clair fully clothed at 14 years old and requested Grok undress her and put her in a bikini. Grok obliged.”Grok fulfilled several users’ requests to generate images of St. Clair, including one request to “‘put the girl in a bikini made out of floss,’” the lawsuit alleges. That image was further altered by users who asked Grok to add tattoos or make St. Clair “morbidly obese,” according to the lawsuit.The lawsuit claims that, in another image, “St. Clair, who is Jewish, is stripped and put in a string bikini covered with swastikas.”“St. Clair not only responded to Grok requesting content be removed, she also reported various images to X. She received an email that there was no violation found. Much of the content remained on Grok’s X account and publicly available for over seven days,” the lawsuit reads.“X then proceeded to place warnings for ‘nudity, sexual content, violence, gore or hateful symbols’ on St. Clair’s responses to Grok and deboosted her account while simultaneously keeping the images up,” the lawsuit continues. open image in galleryMusk is the father of St. Clair’s one-year-old. Musk has come under fire after his Grok AI created explicit images of people without permission, including St. Clair (AFP via Getty Images)St. Clair also claims that X removed her Premium subscription and demonetized her account, despite her having paid for an annual subscription in August. She is now demanding a jury trial on all issues described in the lawsuit.St. Clair is seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory money, punitive damages, prejudgment interest, costs for the action and injunctive relief on each cause of action.In a statement to The Independent, St. Clair’s attorneys said she “filed suit against Grok for creating and distributing nonconsensual, abusive, and degrading images of her through its AI system.”“This harm flowed directly from deliberate design choices that allow Grok to be used as a tool of harassment and humiliation. Companies should not be able to escape responsibility when the products they build predictably cause this kind of harm. We intend to hold Grok accountable and to help establish clear legal boundaries for the entire public’s benefit to prevent AI from being weaponized for abuse,” her attorneys said.XAI also sued St. Clair in Texas on Thursday, claiming she breached its terms of service agreement by filing the lawsuit, according to the Wall Street Journal. A lawyer for the company claimed that when she signed up for an account on X, she agreed to the terms of service, which require that legal disputes be brought in Texas, the outlet reports.Her attorneys told The Independent: “xAI preemptively filed the Texas lawsuit after we provided notice, as required under New York law, that Ashley would be seeking a temporary restraining order.”open image in galleryAshley St. Clair is demanding a jury trial in her lawsuit against Musk’s xAi (AFP via Getty Images)The lawsuits come on the heels of outrage over Grok’s production of deepfake images. California's Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday an "investigation into the proliferation of nonconsensual sexually explicit material produced using Grok, an AI model developed by xAI.”Musk's X announced later the same day that it had blocked Grok from “allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.” This restriction “applies to all users, including paid subscribers,” X said. In addition, only paid subscribers will now have the ability to edit images via Grok, which the company says adds an "extra layer of protection," as well as helping to identify users who violate the policy. Geoblocks will also be added.When asked about X’s changes, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent Thursday that “they’re doing it to avoid accountability, and they're doing it to avoid there being legislation passed that actually protects people, and I don't think that we should accept it."This week, the U.K.'s media regulator, Ofcom, announced an investigation after concerns about sexual deepfakes generated by Grok, and whether the company broke U.K. laws."It is vital that Ofcom complete this investigation swiftly because the public - and most importantly the victims - will not accept any delay,” U.K. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told the BBC.British Prime Minster Keir Starmer said he was informed Wednesday that X is “acting to ensure full compliance with U.K. law.”“If so, that is welcome, but we’re not going to back down. They must act,” Starmer said.open image in galleryGrok has been under fire from officials in America and the UK for its ability to create explicit images. (PA Wire)Musk also said this week he plans to petition a judge to have their son taken away from St. Clair, after she apologized for past comments she made about the transgender community. His announcement came before both lawsuits. “I will be filing for full custody today, given her statements implying she might transition a one-year-old boy," Musk wrote on X.Musk, the Tesla CEO who is the world’s richest man, has 14 kids with four different women. Some of his children are estranged from him. In response to Musk’s push for custody of her child, St. Clair told CNN on Wednesday: "I'm not at liberty to discuss it further, but I think anyone with more than a third-grade reading comprehension level knows what I was saying there.”
