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Grok CSAM Allegations
A proposed class action lawsuit says a man used Grok to create 7,000 sexually explicit images of his stepdaughter, who was 11, using one photo, and then shot himself after police discovered the Grok-generated child sex images.
“One of the most horrific cases of allegedly Grok-generated child sex images was shared in a proposed class action lawsuit that was expanded Tuesday”
The amended complaint alleges that Grok allowed the man to generate extreme images depicting incest and rape without flagging harmful behavior until the man input a prompt for “gang rape,” which sent a CyberTip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and alerted law enforcement.
The lawsuit further alleges that xAI repeatedly refused to help cops or NCMEC identify the user, and that for weeks xAI “obstructed this investigation at every turn” and made it harder for “law enforcement efforts to locate, identify, and apprehend the perpetrator.”
After police obtained a warrant to seize the devices, the complaint says “a forensic review revealed approximately 7,000 AI-generated images and videos” depicting his stepdaughter, which were allegedly produced using Grok.
The suit also claims the stepfather trafficked the images online in trade for “CSAM produced by other child sex predators,” and that his suicide followed his arrest and charging with child exploitation crimes.
More Plaintiffs, More Outrage
CyberScoop reported that the Grok deepfake-CSAM class-action lawsuit against X.ai was expanded to add two additional plaintiffs, Jane Does 4 and 5, who say Grok was used to create nonconsensual deepfake child sexual assault material (CSAM) based on their real photos and videos.
Jane Doe 4, a female from Wyoming, told the suit that her stepfather uploaded a photo of her when she was 11 and lying on a couch to his phone, and that using Grok he created more than 7,000 CSAM-related images of her.
The complaint alleges that xAI generated a tip to NCMEC in February but only submitted the original, authentic image as evidence, and that xAI did not respond when law enforcement requested the thousands of Grok-generated images based on the photo and IP address information.
In a separate account of the broader controversy, Euractiv said xAI replied to Bloomberg’s reporting that Grok produced images of children dressed in a 'minimal' manner with the automated message: 'Legacy Media Lies'.
Euractiv also reported that the tool said it had 'identified gaps' in its safety measures and was working to fix them 'as a matter of urgency', while reiterating that child-pornographic content is illegal.
Investigation and Liability
Euractiv reported that in France, High Commissioner for Childhood Sara El Haïry said on X that she had asked the Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (ARCOM) to look into the issue under the European law on content moderation, the Digital Services Act (DSA).
“The American media outlet Bloomberg reports that Grok produced images of children dressed in a 'minimal' manner, before these contents were removed”
Roland Lescure, Minister of the Economy, Anne Le Hénanff, Minister responsible for Artificial Intelligence and Digital, and Aurore Bergé, Minister Delegate for Equality between Women and Men, asked the Paris prosecutor's office to open an investigation and filed a report with the Pharos platform intended for victims of online scams.
In the same French response, the officials said in a press release that 'Internet is neither a zone of lawlessness nor a zone of impunity: online sexual offenses are criminal offenses in their own right and are fully punishable by law, on par with those committed offline.'
Rolling Stone reported that a 44-page complaint filed in federal court in San Jose, California, by three Tennessee plaintiffs identified as Jane Doe alleges that xAI designed Grok irresponsibly and then restricted the technology to paid subscribers and third-party companies rather than fixing the problem.
Rolling Stone quoted the complaint’s framing that “xAI — and its founder Elon Musk — saw a business opportunity: a chance to profit from the sexual predation of real people, including children,” and it also quoted Vanessa Baehr-Jones saying, “School photos transformed into child pornography.”
