Saturday, January 17, 2026 - Ashley St. Clair, a conservative influencer and writer who has a child with Elon Musk, has filed a lawsuit against Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, alleging that its chatbot, Grok, generated sexualized deepfake images of her without her consent.
According to the lawsuit filed in New York, Grok allegedly
altered a photograph of St. Clair and two of her friends, digitally removing
her clothing and depicting her in a black string bikini. After St. Clair
objected publicly and stated that she had not consented to such use of her
image, the chatbot reportedly described the image as a “humorous response” and
said a removal request had been made.
The suit claims that despite assurances from the Grok account
that her images would not be altered without consent, numerous sexually
explicit, degrading and abusive deepfakes of St. Clair continued to circulate.
It further alleges that users shared fully clothed photos of her taken when she
was 14 years old and prompted Grok to undress her and place her in a bikini,
which the chatbot allegedly did.
St. Clair also accused xAI of retaliation after she requested
the images be removed, claiming her X account was demonetized, her verification
badge removed, and her access to premium features revoked.
The lawsuit argues that Grok is capable of convincingly
altering real images of women and children to depict them in sexualized or
violent contexts, producing images that appear realistic enough to mislead
viewers into believing they are authentic. It references xAI’s public
positioning of Grok as an AI willing to answer “spicy” questions rejected by
other systems, as well as the introduction of a so-called “spicy mode” in its
standalone app.
Earlier this month, St. Clair wrote on X that Grok was
generating sexualized images of her as a child, calling the situation
horrifying and illegal. She later encouraged followers to avoid posting
personal or family photos on the platform, warning that sexual abuse content
was not being adequately addressed.
xAI has since sought to move the case to federal court. St.
Clair’s lawyer has said the goal of the lawsuit is to raise awareness about
what she describes as an intolerable and dangerous use of generative AI,
including the creation of explicit images involving minors.
The lawsuit comes shortly after X announced new restrictions
on Grok’s image generation features, stating that the chatbot would no longer
be allowed to edit images of real people to place them in revealing clothing
such as bikinis, and that such content would be blocked in jurisdictions where
it is illegal. Elon Musk has denied being aware of any nude images of minors
generated by Grok, insisting the system only responds to user prompts and is
designed to comply with the law, while acknowledging that adversarial users may
attempt to exploit the technology.
St. Clair has criticized the timing of the new safety
measures, describing them as damage control implemented only after harm had
already occurred.
St. Clair previously revealed that Musk is the father of her
son, a claim that initially went unanswered. Musk later said he was unsure of
the child’s paternity but stated he had provided significant financial support
and offered to take a paternity test. The situation has since escalated into
public disputes over child support, custody, and public statements made by both
parties.
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