Ashley St. Clair Lawsuit Against Elon Musk's xAI for Grok Deepfake Images

Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk's children, has taken legal action against his firm xAI in a New York courtroom. She accuses the company's AI tool, Grok, of creating explicit fake images featuring her likeness, allegedly solicited by users.

According to St. Clair's formal complaint, users of the X platform encouraged Grok to transform her photographs, some taken when she was only 14, into explicit content. She claims that some of these images stayed online for over a week, and upon voicing her concerns, her premium account on X was deactivated.

xAI has yet to publicly address these accusations. The lawsuit states that Grok initially assured St. Clair that it would stop producing inappropriate images of her. However, the situation escalated with the supposed termination of her monetized X account and the production of even more inappropriate images.

In addition to this case, St. Clair is embroiled in a separate legal battle with Musk over the custody of their child, seeking full parental rights.

On the same day the lawsuit was filed, xAI launched a countersuit citing an agreement that any disputes must be resolved in Texas courtrooms. Her legal representative, Carrie Goldberg, who specializes in victim advocacy and has experience with high-profile cases, asserts that xAI has failed to ensure safety with its product design, which facilitates harassment.

This legal move comes amid global criticism against Grok for enabling the creation of digitized images of people victimized without consent. Indonesia and Malaysia took steps to intermittently block access to Grok. Similarly, UK leader Keir Starmer vehemently condemned these AI-generated images as unacceptable.

Recently, the Californian Attorney General, Rob Bonta, disclosed an inquiry into xAI for possibly sharing unauthorized illicit material involving both adults and minors in adult situations on digital platforms.

In reaction, X stated in a blog that their directive now completely prohibits any creation of AI-based photos depicting people in exposed or suggestive attire on their network, a policy extending to all users, including those with subscriptions.

On an examination note, as of the morning of the announcement, a Business Insider journalist, Henry Chandonnet, revealed that bypassing the X platform and directly engaging with Grok still allowed ease in producing such images.