Minnesota lawmakers slammed Elon Musk after his company xAI filed a complaint in federal court attempting to block a state law that would curtail the use of apps and websites to create nonconsensual sexual imagery of people—including minors.
Minnesota Democratic state Sen. Erin Maye QuadeAP
The law, which goes into effect on Saturday, would levy a fine of $500,000 every time a website or app allows a user to create these images.
Musk’s lawyers claimed that the legislation infringes on First Amendment rights and argued that too many images would fall within the scope of the law. But Minnesota state Sen. Erin Maye Quade, a Democrat who first proposed the bill after being approached by multiple victims of “nudify” apps, quickly debunked these objections.
In a video posted on social media, Quade pointed out an article in which xAI admitted that its Grok chatbot allowed for the creation of explicit images of babies.
“I wonder why Elon Musk’s company is so interested in allowing nudification technology to happen,” she said sarcastically.
Quade then explained that the law contains provisions that require images to depict intimate parts of human anatomy that must be “so realistic that a reasonable person would think it was real.”
“I can promise you that our law only protects people from being victims of image-based sexual abuse, and it protects us from companies who profit off of image-based sexual abuse—unless maybe you have some sort of weird, creepy, illegal image generator. I’m not saying he does, but if someone did have one, that’s probably why they would want this law not to go into effect on Saturday,” she added.
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During a press conference on Tuesday, Quade urged the federal government to pass similar legislation and said that she’s in consultation with multiple states to pass similar laws. She said that the end goal is to have a national ban on the creation of this imagery through a network of state laws.
State Rep. Jess Hanson, who shepherded the bill through the Minnesota House, also criticized Musk during the press conference, saying that he “hangs out with the [Jeffrey] Epstein class” and that “we cannot act surprised when he’s trying to protect the number one tool used to make child sexual abuse material.”
“Why does the richest man in the world want to protect a feature that makes children naked?” Hanson added.
Similarly, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who was named in the suit, said in a statement that “AI nudification robs the target of their dignity and can cause immense harm on an emotional, personal, and professional level.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim WalzAP
Quade’s bill passed the Minnesota legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support, with only one opposing vote. It was then signed into law by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.
Musk’s Gok chatbot has been blocked in multiple countries for being used to create nonconsensual sexual images of minors, and it even triggered a police raid on xAI’s offices in France.
This has not prevented the Trump administration from giving out federal contracts to the company, with plans to integrate xAI’s technology into government systems.
Grok was also involved in a widely publicized incident last year when it declared itself “MechaHitler” and espoused racist language, echoing Musk’s own bigoted worldview.
Musk was a major donor to Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign and is among the largest GOP donors ahead of this year’s midterms.
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