Mother of Elon Musk's child sues his company over Grok deepfakes
The mother of one of Elon Musk's children is suing his company after Grok allegedly produced sexualised deepfake images that altered a picture of her as a 14-year-old girl to show her wearing a swastika bikini.Ashley St. Clair, 27, who is mother to one-year-old Romulus, is taking action against xAI, arguing the images have caused her humiliation and emotional distress. Writer Ms St Clair, who is Jewish, filed a lawsuit on Thursday in New York City against xAI alleging that the images have included a photo of her fully dressed at age 14 that was altered to show her in a bikini, and others showing her as an adult in sexualized positions and wearing a bikini with swastikas.Grok and Musk himself had been subjected to criticism internationally after it emerged some X users were using the AI bot to remove women and even children's clothes without their consent.Other users were using the function to put women and children in sexualised positions or requesting them to be pictured in scanty bikinis. On Wednesday, X announced that Grok would no longer be able to edit photos to portray real people in revealing clothing in places where it is against the law.A statement read: 'We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.'This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers.' Ashley St. Clair, 27, who is mother to one-year-old Romulus, is taking action against xAI, arguing the images have caused her humiliation and emotional distress Elon Musk, who owns X, with his newborn son Romulus in a picture shared via court documents by Ms St. ClairLast week Musk had restricted the function to paying users only. Although the issue has made headlines around the world in recent weeks, St. Clair said she first reported deepfakes to X after they began appearing last year and asked that they be removed. According to the lawsuit, the platform first replied that the images did not violate its policies. Then it promised to not allow images of her to be used or altered without her consent, she said.St. Clair said the social platform then retaliated against her by removing her premium X subscription and verification checkmark, not allowing her to make money from her account, which has 1 million followers, and continuing to allow degrading fake images of her.'I have suffered and continue to suffer serious pain and mental distress as a result of xAI's role in creating and distributing these digitally altered images of me,' she said in a document attached to the lawsuit. 'I am humiliated and feel like this nightmare will never stop so long as Grok continues to generate these images of me.'She also said she lives in fear of the people who view the deepfakes of her.She is seeking an undisclosed amount of damages for alleged infliction of emotional distress and other claims, as well as court orders immediately barring xAI from allowing more deepfakes of her. Ms St. Clair (pictured) is seeking an undisclosed amount of damages for alleged infliction of emotional distress and other claims Musk has at least 14 children with four women - here he is see with three of his brood - Strider and Azure, who are twins, and XMs St. Clair, from New York, filed the lawsuit in the Supreme Court there, but lawyers for xAI transferred the lawsuit to federal court in Manhattan, asking a judge to hear the case. xAI also countersued Ms St. Clair in federal court in the Northern District of Texas, alleging she violated the terms of her xAI user agreement that requires lawsuits against the company be filed in federal court in Texas. It is seeking an undisclosed money judgment against her.X is based in Texas, where Musk owns a home and his electric automaker Tesla in headquartered in Austin.Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer for Ms St. Clair, called the countersuit a 'jolting' move that she had never seen by a defendant before.'Ms. St. Clair will be vigorously defending her forum in New York,' Goldberg said in a statement. 'But frankly, any jurisdiction will recognize the gravamen of Ms. St. Clair's claims - that by manufacturing nonconsensual sexually explicit images of girls and women, xAI is a public nuisance and a not reasonably safe product.'Ms St. Clair is the mother of Musk's 16-month-old son, Romulus. Musk previously announced that he would file for full custody of the youngster after Ms St. Clair shared a series of posts which were supportive of trans rights.He claimed these statements '[imply] she might transition a one-year-old boy.' Grok, the AI chatbot attached to X, will no longer be able to produce sexualised images of real people without their consent in places where this is illegal, it was announced this weekNone of the posts shared by Ms St. Clair mentioned her son or suggested she would transition him. Responding to a user asking about 'blatant transphobia' they claimed she had engaged in in the past, Ms St. Clair said: 'I feel immense guilt for my role. And even more guilt that things I have said in the past may have caused my son’s sister more pain.'Idrk [I don't really know] how to make amends for many of these things but I have been trying incredibly hard privately to learn + advocate for those within the trans community that I’ve hurt.'It is believed the sister Ms St. Clair was referring to is Musk's older trans daughter, Vivian, from whom he is estranged. Ms St. Clair said last year that Musk had offered her $15 million and $100,000 a month to not publicly disclose he was the father of their son Romulus.It is not known exactly how many children Musk has, but he has fathered offspring with at least four women. It is generally agreed that he has 14 confirmed children - six with his ex wife, Justine Wilson; three with singer Grimes; four with former employee Shivon Zilis; and one with Ms St. Clair.His first child Nevada, who he had with wife Ms Wilson, died of sudden infant death syndrome in 2002 at just ten weeks old.In its announcement on Wednesday, X said it was implementing other safeguards on Grok including limiting image creation and editing to paid accounts, which it said would improve accountability. It said it had zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual nudity and unwanted sexual content, and it would immediately remove such content and report accounts involved in child sex abuse materials to law enforcement.The Daily Mail has contacted xAI for comment.
