Grok Lawsuit Claims xAI Failed to Safeguard Against Sexually Explicit Deepfakes of Children

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that xAI has failed to implement strong, effective safeguards to prevent its AI image/video generator Grok from being used to generate sexually explicit deepfakes, and knowingly enabled users to generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) depicting real children.

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The 50-page class action complaint charges that when xAI was developing image- and video-generation capabilities for Grok, the Elon Musk-controlled tech company, despite knowing that the chatbot was capable of generating CSAM depicting actual minors, failed to implement industry-standard safeguards to prevent the AI model from creating sexually explicit or abusive content that featured a real person’s real image or video and then “monetized [Grok’s] ability to create and distribute CSAM.”

Related Reading: Grok Nonconsensual Sexual Images Lawsuit: Explicit Deepfakes

According to the filing, most of xAI’s competitors use guardrails for AI image- and video-generators to prevent them from being used to create nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfakes of real people. These standards generally focus on preventing users from creating any sexual image, as it is reasonably foreseeable that generative AI could be used to create CSAM, the complaint relays.

The class action lawsuit claims that xAI, instead, “saw an opportunity to profit off the sexual predation of real people, including children.” Rather than implement standards to prevent AI-generated sexualized deepfakes, the company in October 2025 released Grok’s “spicy mode,” which permitted users to create “NSFW,” or “not safe for work,” content of a sexual or violent nature, the suit shares.

“While Grok purportedly has a system prompt that directs it to avoid ‘creating or distributing child sexual abuse material, including any fictional depictions,’ this system prompt will inevitably fail because, with a model that allows for any sexual or abusive content, it is impossible to prevent that model from creating such content involving minors,” the lawsuit states.

After public outcry about the “deluge” of sexually explicit deepfakes, xAI limited Grok’s video- and image-generation features to X Premium+ or Supergrok subscribers, per the suit.

However, the case claims that limiting such features to only paid subscribers does not remove the risk of users creating AI-generated CSAM. Instead, it means that xAI will continue to be able to profit from the sexual exploitation of children. The lawsuit conveys that xAI has also profited from the sale of Grok’s “dangerous” technology to third-party companies that then sold subscriptions to users who could use it to generate “tailor-made” CSAM of real children.

The plaintiffs in the class action suit are six Arkansas children who allege that Russell Bloodworth, a professional photographer, had taken legitimate photos of them—such as school portraits—then used Grok to generate nonconsensual, sexually explicit AI-generated deepfake images and videos using their likenesses.

The case says that in June 2026, police, acting on a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), executed a search warrant at Bloodworth’s residence and found approximately 1,700 CSAM images and videos, some of which were created with Grok.

The lawsuit conveys that AI-generated CSAM featuring the plaintiffs has been entered into a national database run by NCMEC, meaning they are now identified victims and will receive a notification every time law enforcement identifies their CSAM files in a criminal case or investigation.

“This means that for the rest of [p]laintiffs’ lives they will likely receive periodic NCMEC notifications alerting them that criminal defendants have possessed, received, or distributed CSAM files depicting them, subjecting them to constant waves of extreme stress and anxiety,” the filing emphasizes.

Furthermore, the plaintiffs have no way of knowing whether someone they encounter has seen the “invasive” and explicit content created using their image, the case states.  

The xAI class action lawsuit looks to cover all individuals in the United States who had real images of themselves as minors altered by xAI/Grok to produce images or videos of sexually explicit conduct or content with their faces and/or other distinguishing features reasonably identifiable.

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