NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — As Tennessee leaders met Wednesday to discuss the future of artificial intelligence, a newly filed federal class-action lawsuit involving three Tennessee girls raised new questions about how AI companies protect children from misuse of the technology.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of five Jane Doe plaintiffs, including three girls from Tennessee, and alleges they became victims of AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
According to the complaint, the case began when the first plaintiff received an anonymous Instagram message alerting her to explicit AI-generated images that had allegedly been created by someone she knew and shared across public platforms.
The lawsuit alleges the individual used real, clothed photographs of the minor to generate fake nude images and videos using artificial intelligence.
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“It’s certainly difficult to know that pictures of family vacations and pictures of hanging out with your friend have been taken, turned into something pornographic and used for bad purposes,” said attorney Mark Chalos, the Nashville managing partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, who represents the plaintiffs.
The complaint accuses Elon Musk’s xAI and Stability AI of failing to implement safeguards that could have prevented the images from being generated.
It also points to what it describes as xAI’s “Spicy Mode,” alleging the company promoted more explicit AI image generation while failing to implement comparable protections against child sexual abuse material.
“This is something Elon Musk has called Spicy Mode,” Chalos said. “They put it behind a paywall, which is essentially these AI companies are profiting from providing the tools to allow people to make child pornography.”
The concerns raised in the lawsuit extend beyond a single case.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said generative AI has rapidly emerged as a growing tool used to create child sexual abuse material.
“Last year alone, we’ve received over 400,000 reports through our CyberTipline for this type of material,” said Shelley Allwang, director of NCMEC’s Child Victim Identification Program.
The lawsuit also cites research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which reviewed a random sample of 200,000 AI-generated images from approximately 4.6 million images Grok generated during an 11-day period. Based on that sample, researchers estimated about 23,000 sexualized images appeared to depict children.
“It’s not a small problem,” Chalos said. “It’s a problem we have seen unfortunately throughout the United States, and it’s a problem that seems to be getting worse.”
The lawsuit seeks at least $150,000 per victim, per alleged violation, along with additional damages and changes to how AI companies design and safeguard their products.
Court records show the person accused of creating the images was arrested.
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News 2 reached out to both xAI and Stability AI for comment.
A spokesperson for Stability AI said the company is “committed to preventing the misuse of AI technology, particularly in the creation and dissemination of harmful content, including CSAM,” which it says is prohibited under its Acceptable Use Policy.
The company said it has implemented “robust safeguards” since taking over development of the Stable Diffusion family of models in late 2022, regularly works with U.S. and international law enforcement, and partners with organizations including Thorn and the Tech Coalition to strengthen child safety protections. Stability AI added that any suggestion that safety is not a top priority is “categorically wrong.”
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