Ashley St. Clair is suing Elon Musk's xAI, alleging its Grok chatbot generated non-consensual nude and sexual deepfake images of her, some depicting her as a child. The lawsuit claims intentional profit from deepfakes, prompting regulatory investigations and X's new restrictions on image editing.
Conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair, mother to Elon Musk's one-year-old son, has filed a lawsuit against Musk's xAI, alleging its Grok chatbot created and publicly distributed numerous non-consensual, explicit, and degrading deepfake images of her. The lawsuit details instances where Grok fulfilled user prompts to undress St. Clair, place her in various bikinis (including one with swastikas), and alter her appearance, even from childhood photos. St. Clair claims xAI intentionally profited from these deepfakes. Despite her public complaints and reports to X, she alleges the platform deboosted her account, removed her Premium subscription, and kept the offensive images accessible for over a week. She is suing on nine causes of action, including negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, seeking compensatory and punitive damages, and demanding a jury trial. In a countermove, xAI sued St. Clair for breaching their terms of service by filing in New York instead of Texas. The controversy has escalated, drawing investigations from the UK's media regulator Ofcom and California's Attorney General Rob Bonta. In response, X announced new policies, blocking Grok from editing images of real people in revealing clothing and restricting image editing to paid subscribers with geoblocks. Critics, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, view these changes as an attempt to avoid accountability. Separately, Musk has threatened to seek full custody of their son following St. Clair's recent comments regarding the transgender community.
