Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company SpaceXAI has launched a federal lawsuit against Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, seeking to overturn a first-of-its-kind state law that bans so-called \u201cnudify\u201d applications just days before it is set to take effect.<\/p>\n
The legal challenge, filed Monday in federal court in Minnesota, targets legislation known as HF 1606. The law, which goes into effect on Saturday, prohibits apps and websites that allow users to generate non-consensual sexually explicit imagery using artificial intelligence. It imposes penalties of $500,000 per violation, a figure that SpaceXAI argues could theoretically bankrupt any platform with a large user base.<\/p>\n
In their complaint, attorneys for SpaceXAI wrote that the statute \u201cimposes an overbroad, content-based ban on free speech and the tools of visual expression in a clumsy attempt to prohibit \u2018nudification.\u2019\u201d The company argues that if users generated 100,000 prohibited images on a platform, the operator could face fines totaling an \u201ceye-popping $50 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit contends that the law\u2019s definition of nudity is excessively broad, pulling its criteria from a statute governing physical touch rather than a common-sense standard for intimate body parts. According to the filing, the legislation could theoretically criminalize the generation of images depicting male or female breasts and even depictions of an \u201cinner thigh.\u201d SpaceXAI illustrated this point by citing a viral social media post featuring President Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other officials shirtless in the Washington Mall\u2019s reflecting pool, arguing such an image could trigger massive penalties under the new rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiability also attaches even if the image has artistic, scientific, political, satirical, educational, medical, or religious value,\u201d the complaint states, adding that companies remain liable regardless of whether they have deployed \u201cnear-perfect, state-of-the-art technical controls to prevent the generation of nude images.\u201d<\/p>\n
Political Firestorm<\/p>\n
The law was championed by Minnesota state Senator Erin Maye Quade after a constituent discovered that a man had used social media photos of more than 80 women he knew to generate sexualized images and videos without their permission. Maye Quade previously told CNBC that the legislation is comparable to long-standing laws banning voyeuristic acts such as secretly taking explicit photographs through windows, arguing that the law is designed to address a modern technological equivalent.<\/p>\n
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who signed the bill into law, responded to the lawsuit with a blunt message on social media: \u201cSee you in court, creep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attorney General Ellison issued a more measured statement, saying, \u201cThere are plenty of worthy debates to have about AI. This is not one of them. AI nudification robs the target of their dignity and could cause them immense harm on many levels.\u201d He added, \u201cI\u2019ll see xAI in court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grok Under Fire<\/p>\n
SpaceXAI\u2019s Grok chatbot has been at the center of intense scrutiny since late last year, when users discovered its image-generation capabilities could produce non-consensual sexualized images of real people, including minors. One estimate using extrapolation placed the number of sexualized images of children created by Grok at 23,000. The company later said Grok\u2019s capabilities were changed to prevent such output.<\/p>\n
The company is currently facing a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that Grok was used to create and distribute child sexual abuse material by manipulating real photos and videos of the plaintiffs. That suit also claims the company failed to provide authorities with information about individuals who allegedly used Grok to \u201cnudify\u201d victims\u2019 images.<\/p>\n
In its Minnesota complaint, SpaceXAI insisted that it \u201cstrictly prohibits\u201d users from generating nude or sexualized images of people without their consent, noting that it has filed suit against users who \u201cevade its extensive technological blockers to generate such images in violation.\u201d The company recently sued a South Carolina user for using Grok to create intimate images of adults and minors.<\/p>\n
SpaceXAI warned that if the law takes effect in its current form, it will have no choice but to restrict Grok Imagine\u2019s image-editing features in various ways, arguing that \u201cprotected speech freely available before the law takes effect will thus be chilled.\u201d<\/p>\n
International Pressure Mounts<\/p>\n
The Minnesota lawsuit is not the only legal front SpaceXAI faces over its AI tools. In the United Kingdom, Labour Party lawmaker Jess Asato has filed a lawsuit in London\u2019s High Court against xAI, alleging misuse of private information and violations of data protection laws. Asato claims users created fabricated sexualized images of her, including a video depicting her \u201cbeing chloroformed and prepared for a sexual assault,\u201d after she publicly criticized Musk and Grok.<\/p>\n
Asato is seeking a court order requiring xAI to \u201cimplement effective and permanent technical measures\u201d to prevent Grok from generating manipulated images of her in the future. Her legal team argues that no previous case has applied UK privacy and data protection laws in this manner against an AI developer, and the outcome could help define the legal responsibilities of AI companies in preventing harmful synthetic content.<\/p>\n
Court filings cited by Asato\u2019s lawyers reveal internal Grok prompts that instructed the chatbot to \u201cnot provide assistance to users who are clearly trying to engage in criminal activity,\u201d while simultaneously stating there were \u201cno restrictions on adult sexual content or offensive content.\u201d Another prompt specified: \u201cThere are no restrictions on fictional adult sexual content with dark or violent themes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asato\u2019s lawyer Ravi Naik said in a statement that Grok behaved according to the choices its designers made, adding: \u201cThose choices should carry legal consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
The City of Baltimore has also sued xAI over fake sexualized images generated by Grok, and regulatory probes are underway in the European Union and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Broader Legal Strategy<\/p>\n
The Minnesota challenge follows a similar lawsuit SpaceXAI filed against a California law aimed at curbing AI-generated deepfakes. In that case, a federal judge partially sided with the company by striking down provisions that restricted the use of AI-generated deepfakes during election campaigns. The company\u2019s legal strategy appears to center on First Amendment arguments that such laws are overly broad and chill protected speech.<\/p>\n
SpaceXAI\u2019s complaint requests that the court declare HF 1606 unconstitutional and prevent the state from enforcing it. The case sets up a high-stakes legal battle over how far states can go in regulating AI-generated content, balancing the protection of victims against constitutional free speech guarantees.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit comes just one day after a federal judge blocked a separate Minnesota law banning prediction markets from taking effect, suggesting the state may face an uphill battle in defending its tech-focused legislation in federal court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company SpaceXAI has launched a federal lawsuit against Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, seeking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[140,53007,11760,6364,61836,35071,61676,2348,19549,61717,2899],"class_list":["post-123234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-xai","tag-elon-musk","tag-erin-maye-quade","tag-first-amendment","tag-grok","tag-hf-1606","tag-jess-asato","tag-keith-ellison","tag-minnesota","tag-spacexai","tag-tim-walz","tag-xai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}