Minnesota Battles xAI Over Groundbreaking AI Image Law
Minnesota is locked in a legal showdown with Elon Musk’s xAI over the company’s attempt to block a pioneering state law aimed at curbing AI tools that generate realistic sexual images of identifiable individuals.
In a court filing on Friday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison argued that xAI’s constitutional challenge is unlikely to prevail and that the company has failed to demonstrate that enforcing the law would cause irreparable harm.
“With Grok Imagine, X.AI has created an unparalleled marketplace for digital sexual violence that poses virtually no barrier to entry,” Ellison stated. “That marketplace, coupled with the functional capabilities of Grok Imagine, would doom Minnesota from the start if it could not direct its laws to the technology that makes digital sexual victimization possible in the first place.”
The law, enacted in April and effective August 1, prohibits platforms and software developers from enabling users to create realistic images depicting intimate body parts that were not present in the original image of an identifiable person.
Prior to the law’s implementation, xAI filed a lawsuit against Ellison in July, seeking to block the legislation. The company contended that the law infringes upon the First Amendment and could potentially encompass protected imagery, such as shirtless men, swimmers, and political satire. Violations carry penalties of up to $500,000 per image.
“There is no safe harbor for good-faith efforts of the provider of general-purpose AI creative tools to avoid harms,” xAI stated in its complaint. “Liability attaches even if the depicted persons consented—or created the image themselves—and even if the image is never shared.”
Minnesota’s legislature passed the measure with overwhelming support, 132-1 in the House and 65-0 in the Senate. The vote followed lawmakers hearing testimony about a man who used social media photos to create sexual images of over 80 women he knew.
“Today, we led the nation protecting women, children and everyone in public life from the harm caused by AI nudification technology,” Senator Maye Quade, who championed the bill, said in a statement at the time. “Companies that make this technology available for free online and in app stores will no longer be allowed to enable predators who abuse and victimize adults and children with the click of a button.”
The core of the current legal dispute hinges on whether the law regulates speech or technology.
Grok has also faced significant scrutiny regarding sexually explicit deepfakes. In January, a watchdog group estimated that Grok generated over 23,000 sexualized images of children within an 11-day period, prompting investigations in multiple countries. In March, three minors in California joined others in suing xAI, alleging that Grok was used to transform their photos into AI-generated child sexual abuse material. xAI has stated that it suspended more than 50,000 accounts and filed over 70,000 reports with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2026.
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