Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed his opposition to Elon Musk’s xAI’s attempt to block the state’s new AI nudification ban on the eve of Wednesday’s hearing for a preliminary injunction.
On July 31, a federal judge denied xAI’s request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the ban from taking effect. The law, which was passed with near-unanimous bipartisan support in the legislature and signed by Gov. Tim Walz earlier this year, prohibits access to or promotion of technology that could allow someone to turn a real image of a person into a fake pornographic image, with fines for those who own or control such services of up to $500,000 each time the technology is downloaded or used unlawfully.
Musk’s xAI, which owns Grok AI technology capable of image generation and editing, filed a lawsuit alleging the new law is a violation of constitutionally protected free speech under the First Amendment.
The federal hearing will be on the motion for a preliminary injunction against enforcing the law, which went into effect Aug. 1.
“X.AI is no more entitled to relief today than it was three weeks ago, and its claims for a preliminary injunction clearly fail,” Ellison said in a press release. “I am proud to fiercely defend this bipartisan law and its intent to protect all Minnesotans — most especially our children — from the irreparable harms that nudification tools and technology pose.”