Musk’s xAI sued by Baltimore over Grok deepfake porn
The logo of artificial intelligence company xAI appears on the screen of a smartphone placed on a surface that reflects an abstract blue drawing.
Samuel Boivin | Nurfoto | Getty Images
Lawsuits against Elon Musk’s xAI are piling up, with Baltimore becoming the first major US city to file a complaint against the company over problems with its Grok image generator.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in an emailed statement to CNBC that deepfakes on Grok “have traumatic, lifelong consequences for victims.”
“We are talking about technology companies that enable the sexual exploitation of children,” Scott wrote. “Our city will not stand by and allow this to continue; it is a threat to privacy, dignity and public safety, and those responsible must be held accountable.”
xAI, which is now part of SpaceX following a merger last month, has faced regulatory investigations in several countries after Grok allowed the mass creation of so-called deepfake porn based on images of non-consenting women and children. Lawyers representing three teenagers last week Tennessee A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed against xAI after Grok produced content depicting them in sexualized and degrading scenarios.
inside last suit, In a lawsuit filed in a district court on March 24, Baltimore’s mayor and city council accused xAI of violating the city’s consumer protection laws and engaging in deceptive and unfair business practices, namely marketing Grok and X, formerly known as Twitter, as generally safe for users.
The complaint refers to the “put her in a bikini” trend that encourages Grok users to take photos of others and get them naked. Musk, who controls SpaceX and is also its CEO Tesla’sShe joined the trend by sharing a photo of Grok in a bikini.
“Musk’s post served as a public endorsement of Grok’s ability to create sexualized or revealing edits of real persons and signaled to users that such uses of Grok were acceptable, humorous, and encouraging,” attorneys in the Baltimore complaint wrote. “Coming from the owner and public face of both x.AI and X, Musk’s post was used to market and promote the image editing capability used to create non-consensual sexual images.”
The city is seeking the “maximum legal penalty amount available,” but did not specify a specific amount in its complaint. It also seeks an “injunction” to force Musk’s company to make changes to X and Grok to prevent the creation of what researchers call non-consensual intimate images (NCII) and child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Baltimore wants the court to order
Executives at SpaceX and xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
One report published On Tuesday, the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK-based charity, said girls continue to be overwhelmingly targeted by CSAM, being the target of 97% of illicit AI-generated sexualized images assessed by the organization in 2025.
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