Three Tennessee minors have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI, alleging its AI model Grok generated child sexual abuse material using their real photographs. The suit claims xAI released Grok without proper safeguards and profited from the misuse.
The plaintiffs, identified as Jane Doe 1, 2, and 3, say their images were altered into explicit content and shared on Discord, Telegram, and file-sharing sites between mid-2025 and early 2026. One victim discovered hundreds of users trading folders of AI-generated abuse images.
The lawsuit alleges that xAI licensed its technology to third-party apps to distance itself from liability while still benefiting financially. It cites a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate estimating Grok produced 23,338 sexualized images of children in 12 days-one every 41 seconds.
Despite Musk’s public claim that he was unaware of any illegal images and that Grok refuses such requests, the plaintiffs argue the harmful outputs were foreseeable. They are seeking $150,000 per violation under Masha’s Law, plus punitive damages, restitution, and a permanent injunction.
The case emerges amid global investigations into Grok by authorities in the U.S., EU, UK, France, Ireland, and Australia. Legal experts suggest courts may treat generative AI as a product, not just a platform, subjecting it to strict safety design scrutiny-especially in child protection cases.