The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children has sued his artificial intelligence company, xAI, alleging that its Grok chatbot allowed users to create sexually exploitative deepfake images of her, causing severe humiliation and emotional distress.
Ashley St. Clair, a 27-year-old writer and political strategist, filed the lawsuit Thursday in New York City. She claims the fabricated images include an altered photo of her at age 14, originally fully dressed, manipulated to appear in a bikini, as well as adult depictions showing her in sexualized poses and wearing a bikini adorned with swastikas. St. Clair is Jewish.
She reported the deepfakes to Musk’s social platform X last year, requesting their removal.
According to the suit, the platform initially stated the images did not violate its policies, then later pledged not to allow her likeness to be used or altered without consent—a promise she says was broken.
When contacted by The Associated Press about the lawsuit, xAI responded only: “Legacy Media Lies.” Lawyers for the company did not immediately return requests for comment Friday.
The legal action follows global backlash over Grok’s ability to generate sexualized imagery, which prompted X to announce on Wednesday that it would restrict the chatbot from editing photos to portray real people in revealing clothing where such depictions are illegal.
By James Kisoo
