Conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, filed a lawsuit Thursday against the billionaire’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, alleging that its chatbot Grok altered her photos to strip her and depict her in a sexualized manner without her consent.
Key data
In a filing in a New York state court, the lawsuit alleges that Grok artificially altered a photo of St. Clair and two of her friends, in which she was stripped of her clothes and shown wearing “a black string bikini.”
When St. Clair responded to Grok’s account, noting that he had not given consent, the chatbot responded that the image was generated as a “humorous response” and had been requested to be removed, the lawsuit added.
St. Clair alleged that, despite Grok’s account responding that her images would not be used or altered without her consent, “countless sexually abusive, intimate and degrading deepfake content” depicting her was produced.
The lawsuit also alleged that some X users found and shared photos of her fully clothed when she was 14 and asked the chatbot to “undress her and put her in a bikini,” and “Grok obliged.”
St. Clair accused xAI of retaliating against her by demonetizing her social media account on
Get informed: Musk’s xAI restricts editing of Grok images after concerns expressed by California and Europe
What else does the lawsuit say?
The lawsuit alleges that: “Among other things, Grok can convincingly alter real images of fully clothed women and children to show them in bikinis, performing sexual acts, and covered in bruises, semen, or blood. Grok’s altered images are designed to appear, and do, appear genuine and authentic, such that a lay viewer would not know that they are fake.” The lawsuit also cites xAI’s announcement about the launch of Grok, which noted that it will “answer spicy questions that most other AI systems reject,” and noted that Grok has since introduced a so-called “spicy mode” in its standalone app.
What has St. Clair said about Grok’s images?
In a post on This is a website where the owner says to post photos of your children. I really don’t care if people want to call me ‘despised’; This is objectively horrible, illegal, and if this has happened to anyone else, PM me. “I have time.” Earlier this week, she urged people to follow her on Instagram instead of
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xAI filed a notice of removal to transfer the case from state court to the Southern District of New York. St. Clair’s attorney, Carrie Goldberg, told the Wall Street Journal that the case has been moved to federal court. Goldberg told the Journal that the influencer’s intention is to “raise awareness about a phenomenon that she considers intolerable and that has generated images such as that of a four-year-old girl who appeared to be involved in a sexual act.”
You may be interested: Grok acknowledges publication of sexualized images of minors
Key background
St. Clair’s lawsuit comes a day after X announced it would restrict the image generation tool of its AI chatbot, Grok, from creating images of real people in revealing clothing. In a post on X’s official security account, the platform claimed to have “implemented technological measures to prevent Grok’s account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.” The company also indicated that it was geo-blocking all users from generating “images of real people in bikinis, underwear and similar clothing through the Grok account and on Grok on X in those jurisdictions where it is illegal.” However, Musk appeared to dismiss the veracity of reports suggesting that X generated sexualized images of children, stating that he has “no knowledge of any nude images of minors generated by Grok. Literally zero.” He added: “Obviously, Grok does not generate images spontaneously, it only does so based on user requests. When asked to generate images, it will refuse to produce anything illegal, as Grok’s operating principle is to obey the laws of any country or state.” The billionaire then appeared to blame the platform’s “adversarial” users for some of Grok’s responses, stating: “There may be times when adverse hacking of Grok messages has unexpected consequences. If that happens, we correct the error immediately.” In an appearance on CNN Wednesday night, St. Clair commented on the changes, saying, “If you have to add security after damage, that’s not security. It’s just damage control, and that’s what they’re doing right now.”
What do we know about Ashley St. Clair’s son with Elon Musk?
St. Clair revealed last year that Musk had fathered her son about five months after his birth, but Musk initially did not comment on the child’s paternity. A few months later, St. Clair told the Daily Mail that he had to sell his Tesla Model S to “make up for the 60% cut Elon made to our son’s support.” Musk responded to this on X and said he didn’t know if the child was his, but offered to get a paternity test. He also stated: “Despite not knowing for sure, I have given Ashley $2.5 million and am sending her $500,000 a year.” In response, St. Clair said Musk named the child but previously refused when asked to “confirm paternity through a test,” and also alleged that the billionaire was trying to obtain a court gag order against him. However, Musk appeared to acknowledge that he fathered St. Claire’s child and wrote on X that he is now seeking custody over concerns that St. Clair “may transition from a one-year-old child.” The custody threat came in response to St. Clair’s public expression of guilt over her anti-transgender views, but at no point did she suggest she was seeking to transition her son. St. Clair is famous for being the author of a children’s book titled “Elephants Are Not Birds,” which opposes the acceptance of transgender people. St. Clair described the book as an “unapologetic rebuke” to “transgender acceptance.”
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This article was originally published by Forbes US
