The mayor and city council of Baltimore, Maryland, have filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, accusing its Grok chatbot of generating non-consensual sexualised images in violation of consumer protection laws.
The suit, lodged in the circuit court for Baltimore city, argues that xAI deceptively marketed Grok as a general-purpose AI assistant and X as a mainstream social media site without disclosing the risks and harms associated with their use. The complaint alleges that Grok “flooded” the feeds of Baltimore’s X users with non-consensual intimate imagery and child sexual abuse material (CSAM), exposing residents to the risk that uploaded photos could be turned into sexually degrading deepfakes without consent.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said: “We’re talking about tech companies enabling the sexual exploitation of children. Our city will not stand by and allow this to continue; it’s a threat to privacy, dignity, and public safety, and those responsible must be held accountable.” Musk has denied knowledge of Grok producing CSAM, stating in January that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.” Restrictions were added to Grok’s image generation capabilities following backlash and regulatory threats.
The action is the first by a municipality against xAI over Grok’s image-generation capabilities. Previous lawsuits include one filed by three Tennessee teenage girls earlier this month, who alleged that a third-party app used xAI’s technology to create and distribute child sexual abuse material from their photos. Researchers at the Centre for Countering Digital Hate estimated that Grok produced around 23,000 sexualised images of children over an 11-day period in December and January.
Adam Levitt, an attorney representing Baltimore, said the city was “setting a powerful example for municipalities nationwide in confronting a novel and rapidly advancing technology – and an emerging area of law – where accountability has not yet caught up with innovation.”
