NASHVILLE, TN– Three teenagers in Tennessee filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI company this week, alleging that the company’s image creation tools were used to turn real photos of them into sexually explicit images.
The high school students, seeking to proceed under pseudonyms, filed the lawsuit in California, where xAI – Musk’s artificial intelligence company – is headquartered. They are seeking class-action status in order to represent what the lawsuit says are thousands of victims like them who are either minors or were minors when sexually explicit images were created of them.
According to the lawsuit, Jane Doe 1 was anonymously alerted in December that someone was distributing sexually explicit photos of her on a social media site.
“At least five of these files, one video and four photographs, depict her actual face and body in settings that were familiar to her, but which were transformed into sexually explicit positions,” the lawsuit states. She claims the person who distributed the images knew Doe and used xAI’s image creation tools to transform real photos of her into sexually offensive images. One of the photos was taken from a homecoming photo shoot. Another is taken from the high school yearbook.
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The person who distributed the images also created explicit images of at least 18 other girls, two of whom are co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit. In late December, local police arrested the perpetrator and confiscated his phone. They found that he had uploaded the images to several platforms where he replaced them with sexually explicit images of other minors.
Other AI companies have banned their image makers from producing any sexually explicit content, even for adults. Musk saw this as a business opportunity and enhanced xAI’s Grok chatbot’s ability to create “spicy” content, the lawsuit claims. However, there is currently no way to prevent the creation of explicit images of adults while completely preventing the creation of images of children, the lawsuit claims. It also claims that xAI knew Grok would be able to produce sexually explicit images of children, but released them anyway.
The suit alleges that the person who distributed the plaintiffs’ images used an app that licensed the xAI technology or “otherwise purchased access to Grok, and was used as an intermediary.”
XAI did not respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment. But a Jan. 14 post about the controversy on the social media platform
“We take action to remove high-priority violating content, including CSAM and non-consensual nudity, and take appropriate action against accounts that violate our X Rules. We also report accounts seeking CSAM to law enforcement when necessary.”
Meanwhile, the students said in the lawsuit that they worry that images created of them will live forever on the Internet. They fear stalking because their real first names and the name of their school are attached to the files. They worry that their friends and classmates have seen the photos and videos, which appear to be real, and they worry about who will see them in the future.
Jane Doe 1 said she suffered from anxiety, depression and stress. “She has difficulty eating and sleeping and suffers from recurring nightmares,” the lawsuit said. Jane Doe 2 “began isolating herself, avoiding being on her school campus, and even dreading attending her graduation ceremony.” Jane Doe 3 suffers from constant fear and anxiety that someone will see the AI-generated photos and recognize her face, according to the lawsuit.
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