xAI failed to block the first US ban on AI “nudification.”Elon Musk’s company filed a court motion over Minnesota’s law against generating nude deepfakes and was denied.This case could set a precedent for the entire generative AI industry.

A US federal court denied Elon Musk’s xAI’s request for a temporary block of the Minnesota state law, which became the first regulation in the country to ban generating or editing images by adding a nude body without a person’s consent.

“xAI filed the motion on July 29, 2026, nearly three months after the law was signed, and only three days before the law is set to take effect. Such a delay in bringing the action and the motion suggests that harm is not immediate,” the court order states.

At the same time, the court did not rule out revisiting the issue later. A hearing on the motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for August 19.

xAI Says the Law Is Overly Broad

xAI did not dispute the state’s right to crack down on services used to create non-consensual intimate deepfakes, but said the law violates the First Amendment to the US Constitution on free speech, according to NBC News.

The document states:

“The law is both overinclusive and underinclusive. And there are far less restrictive alternatives that function to achieve the same ends.”

xAI also emphasized that it already prohibits users from “generating nude or sexualized images of people without their consent.”

The company also argues that the new rules could create legal risks even in cases where:

the person gave consent to create the imagethey created it themselvesthe content was never publishedThe image has artistic, satirical, educational, scientific, medical, or political value.

The Law Was Passed After Scandals Surrounding Grok

Minnesota’s new law was signed by Governor Tim Walz in May 2026. The document prohibits owners of websites, apps, or software from allowing users to create so-called nudified images, as well as from advertising such features.

Under the law, nudified content refers to images or videos that have been altered or generated in a way that shows intimate body parts that were not present in the original, if the result is so realistic that an average person would perceive it as real.

Violations of the law carry:

A civil fine of up to $500,000 for each instance of unlawful access, use, or uploadCompensation for emotional distressPunitive damagesReimbursement of legal costs

At the same time, the law does not establish criminal liability.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison urged the court to dismiss xAI’s request, saying the company itself created an “artificial emergency” by going to court only three months after the law was passed.

After the lawsuit was filed, Governor Tim Walz briefly responded on X:

“See you in court, creep.“

The Grok Scandal Intensified the Debate Over AI Regulation

xAI’s lawsuit followed a series of scandals surrounding the Imagine feature in the Grok chatbot. After the model launched in late December 2025, users began massively creating sexualized deepfakes of real people without their consent, triggering international criticism and investigations in several jurisdictions.

In January 2026, according to media reports, Apple threatened to remove Grok from its app store unless xAI tightened restrictions. Despite this, as late as April, users were still finding ways to bypass the safeguards the company had put in place.

Against the backdrop of these developments, the European Commission has already launched an official investigation into X over a potential violation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) linked to the use of Grok to generate sexualized images.

At the same time, the xAI case has drawn a mixed response from human rights organizations. The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota (ACLU Minnesota), which initially supported the bill, opposed the final version after it was revised.

“While we believe that creating the technology to alter or ‘nudify’ photos of identifiable people is protected by the First Amendment, we also recognize that the non-consensual creation and dissemination of such material can inflict damage on people appearing in those images.”

In addition, class-action lawsuits have already been filed against xAI and its parent company, with plaintiffs claiming that Grok created or distributed nude deepfakes of them, including images involving minors. One of the latest was a lawsuit filed by a British MP.

Сообщение Court Denied xAI’s Bid to Block the First US Ban on AI “Nudification” Services появились сначала на INCRYPTED.