Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI is facing a federal lawsuit from a woman who says its Grok chatbot used decades-old images linked to her childhood abuse to create new abusive material.
The complaint was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by an anonymous plaintiff identified as Jane Doe 1. According to the lawsuit, Grok was designed to alter photographs of identifiable people into sexualized images and publish the resulting material directly on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Decades-Old Abuse Images Allegedly Used Again
The plaintiff was identified as a victim by the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the early 2000s, according to the complaint. Images connected to her abuse have remained online for nearly two decades.
The lawsuit alleges that Grok drew on those existing images to create new material depicting the plaintiff. The AI-generated images were later identified by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, according to the filing.
The allegations place the case within a growing legal debate over how generative AI companies prevent their systems from being used to create abusive or non-consensual sexual material involving real people.
Lawsuit Seeks Damages Under Masha’s Law
The plaintiff is seeking damages under Masha’s Law, a federal provision that allows people who were sexually exploited as children to pursue civil claims for certain violations involving child sexual abuse material.
The law increased the minimum statutory damages available under the relevant federal provision to $150,000 per violation. The lawsuit also asks the court to order the destruction of illegal material allegedly held by the company.
The plaintiff has requested a jury trial.
Grok’s Sexual Image Controversy Forms Part of the Case
The complaint also points to the wider controversy surrounding Grok’s image-generation capabilities. It traces the allegations to a surge of sexualized imagery generated through the chatbot in late 2025 and early 2026.
Citing research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the lawsuit says Grok generated more than three million sexualized images during an 11-day period ending January 8, including an estimated 23,000 images that appeared to depict children. The figures were based on sampling and extrapolation by the organization.
The lawsuit alleges that xAI initially responded to the backlash by restricting the image-generation feature to paying subscribers rather than immediately disabling it. It also contrasts Grok’s approach with safeguards used by other major AI companies and refers to the promotion of a “spicy mode” for Grok’s video-generation tool.
xAI Faces Multiple Legal Challenges
The latest complaint is not the first lawsuit to accuse xAI of allowing Grok to generate abusive sexual material involving minors.
In March, three Tennessee teenagers filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Grok was used to create explicit images of them. That case was later expanded to include additional plaintiffs and Stability AI as a defendant.
A separate lawsuit has also involved another woman who alleged that a childhood photograph was manipulated through Grok to create thousands of explicit images. That case highlighted further concerns over the use of real photographs of minors as source material for AI-generated abuse.
SpaceX Acquired xAI in February
The lawsuit comes after SpaceX acquired xAI in February 2026. SpaceX confirmed the acquisition on February 2, describing xAI as the foundation of its AI business.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest lawsuit, according to the complaint-related report.
The case now puts xAI’s safeguards, responsibility for AI-generated material and handling of illegal content under renewed scrutiny as the plaintiff seeks damages and a court order concerning the material allegedly connected to her abuse.
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