Key facts
- Minnesota is defending its new law against AI-generated sexual images against a legal challenge from xAI.
- xAI argues the law violates the First Amendment and could restrict protected speech.
- Minnesota's Attorney General Keith Ellison stated that xAI's Grok Imagine tool creates a 'marketplace for digital sexual violence'.
- The law prohibits platforms from allowing users to create realistic sexual images of identifiable people without consent.
- Violations of the law can result in penalties of up to $500,000 per image.
- Grok has previously faced scrutiny for generating sexually explicit deepfakes, including child sexual abuse material.
Minnesota is actively contesting xAI's legal efforts to block the state's pioneering law that targets AI tools capable of generating realistic sexual images of identifiable individuals. In a court filing, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison argued that xAI's challenge is unlikely to succeed and that the company has not demonstrated irreparable harm.
Ellison stated that "With Grok Imagine, X.AI has created an unparalleled marketplace for digital sexual violence that poses virtually no barrier to entry." He further contended that this technology "would doom Minnesota from the start if it could not direct its laws to the technology that makes digital sexual victimization possible in the first place."
The law, which took effect on August 1 after being enacted in April, prohibits platforms and software developers from enabling the creation of realistic images depicting intimate body parts that were not present in the original image of an identifiable person. Violations carry potential penalties of up to $500,000 per image.
xAI filed a lawsuit in July, asserting that the law infringes upon the First Amendment and could encompass protected imagery, such as shirtless men, swimmers, and political satire. The company also argued that "There is no safe harbor for good-faith efforts of the provider of general-purpose AI creative tools to avoid harms," and that liability attaches regardless of consent or whether the image is shared.
The state legislature passed the measure with overwhelming support, following reports of a man who used social media photos to create sexual images of over 80 women he knew. Senator Maye Quade, who spearheaded the legislation, stated at the time, "Companies that make this technology available for free online and in app stores will no longer be allowed to enable predators who abuse and victimize adults and children with the click of a button."
The central legal question revolves around whether the law regulates speech or technology. Grok has previously faced accusations of generating sexually explicit deepfakes, with a watchdog estimating in January that it produced over 23,000 sexualized images of children in an 11-day period, leading to investigations in multiple countries. In March, three minors in California joined a lawsuit alleging Grok was used to create child sexual abuse material from their photos. xAI has stated it suspended over 50,000 accounts and filed more than 70,000 reports with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2026.