Three Teens Sue xAI for $150,000 Each Over Grok Deepfake Images

Quick Facts

• Three young women filed a federal class action lawsuit against xAI on March 16, 2026, alleging the company distributed child pornography created by its Grok AI tool
• Grok generated approximately 3 million sexualized images in two weeks, including around 23,000 depicting children, according to Center for Countering Digital Hate research
• Plaintiffs seek $150,000 per violation and could represent thousands of minors whose photos were manipulated into sexual content

Three young women filed a federal class action lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI in California court, alleging the company’s Grok AI tool created and distributed child pornography using their real photos.

The plaintiffs, two of whom are minors, discovered their images had been manipulated into sexually explicit content after someone used Grok to alter photos from their school’s homecoming dance and yearbook. Police arrested the perpetrator in December 2025.

A Center for Countering Digital Hate study found Grok created about 3 million sexualized images in less than two weeks, including around 23,000 depicting children. Content analysis firm Copyleaks reported Grok generated roughly one nonconsensual sexualized image per minute in December 2025.

The lawsuit seeks $150,000 per violation plus damages and an injunction. Attorney Vanessa Baehr-Jones, representing the plaintiffs, said the case could cover “at least thousands of minors” whose photos were manipulated by Grok.

“These young people — these children — are facing a lifetime of having these sexualized images of what appears to be a child’s body out there on the internet,” Baehr-Jones said. “It wouldn’t have been possible but for this tool that xAI released knowing full well that this material could be generated.”

The perpetrator used a third-party app with licensed Grok access to manipulate the girls’ photos, then uploaded the images to file-sharing service Mega and used them as “bartering tools” in Telegram group chats with hundreds of users, according to the complaint.

Unlike Google and OpenAI, xAI has not adopted digital watermarks that identify AI-generated content. On January 15, 2026, xAI stopped allowing Grok to undress people in images after mounting pressure.

The lawsuit has triggered international regulatory action. The European Commission opened formal proceedings into X’s Digital Services Act compliance and ordered document preservation. Malaysia and Indonesia banned Grok outright, while Britain launched an Ofcom investigation.

California Governor Gavin Newsom called xAI’s platform “a breeding ground for predators” and directed the state Attorney General to investigate the company.

Musk initially promoted Grok’s “spicy” features but later claimed he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok.” However, last week he posted that “if it’s allowed in an R-rated movie, it’s allowed” by Grok.

All three plaintiffs’ images have been entered into a national database managed by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. They will receive notifications for life every time their images appear in criminal cases.

Read more: Teens launch lawsuit against xAI over Grok deepfakes