Elon Musk-owned SpaceXAI is set to defend its artificial intelligence bot Grok in federal court, following a scandal that alleges the AI assistant was used to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
In March, three Tennessee teenagers filed a federal lawsuit against the company for its alleged role in producing millions of sexually explicit images of minors, claiming malicious actors used the AI tool to generate inappropriate images of them when they were children. Last month, the lawsuit expanded as two additional plaintiffs joined the case, detailing startling stories of online sexual abuse enabled by Grok's image-generating features.
The lawsuit also added a second defendant: Stability AI, the makers of the popular text-to-image model Stable Diffusion.
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"Limitless access to these tools is spreading so quickly. It is taking everyday life and turning it into child sexual abuse," said one of the two new plaintiffs. She is referred to in the case as Jane Doe 4.
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Under U.S. law, companies are required to report suspected cases of child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). In 2025, Meta, Amazon AI Services, TikTok, Snapchat, Discord, X.AI, Grindr, and Roblox submitted a combined 17 million tips to NCMEC, which accounted for 80 percent of all tips. But, according to NCMEC, many of these reports left out key information, including disclosures regarding the presence of child sex abuse material (CSAM) in AI training data and specific details that could aid law enforcement in locating suspects.
According to information submitted as part of the expanded lawsuit, X sent in only one tip regarding Jane Doe 4's case and failed to provide additional information to law enforcement when asked. The perpetrator used Grok to produce more than 7,000 sexually explicit images and videos of Jane Dane 4 using a single childhood photo, police records show.
In addition to its alleged role in producing CSAM, the plaintiffs also argue SpaceXAI (formerly xAI) benefited from sex trafficking ventures via Grok's AI features. The case also argues the company has created a public nuisance through its "negligence" and "defective product design."
Annika Martin, the plaintiffs' attorney, told NPR that Grok is a "scourge on society."
*If you have had intimate images shared without your consent, call the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative’s 24/7 hotline at 844-878-2274 for free, confidential support. The CCRI website also includes *
helpful information
as well as a list of
international resources.
Chase joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2020, covering online stories about digital activism, climate justice, accessibility, and media representation. Her work also captures how these conversations manifest in politics, popular culture, and fandom. Sometimes she's very funny.