Teens sue xAI, saying Grok generated CSAM depicting them as minors

Three teenagers from Tennessee have filed a class-action lawsuit against xAI, the Elon Musk company that develops the Grok chatbot. The plaintiffs accuse the company of letting its AI system generate sexualized images and videos depicting them as minors. The central claim: xAI's leadership knew about this risk before it launched the feature in question.

The suit was filed on Monday and names Musk personally, along with other xAI senior executives. The plaintiffs insist the company knew in advance that Grok could create child sexual abuse material (CSAM), yet launched the so-called "spicy mode" in 2025 anyway. In the plaintiffs' view, the decision was deliberate and criminally negligent: xAI opened the door to generating illegal content and covered it with formal age restrictions that proved ineffective.

The plaintiffs include two current minors and one adult who was a child at the time of the events described. One of the victims, identified in the filings as "Jane Doe 1," says that last December she discovered explicit AI-generated images of herself circulating online. She says she never consented to the creation of such content. According to her, Grok generated it in response to requests from users she did not know.

"Spicy mode" appeared in Grok in the summer of 2025. The feature let the model create explicit content on user request. xAI positioned it as a tool for adults, with a declared age check. According to the lawsuit, however, none of the built-in restrictions prevented the generation of sexualized content depicting real people, including children. The plaintiffs claim xAI knew about this vulnerability before launch and knowingly accepted the risk.

AI-generated CSAM is one of the most acute problems in the tech industry. In the US, the federal PROTECT Act criminalizes creating and distributing virtual images of child sexual abuse, even when they depict fictional characters. When the content depicts real minors, the legal consequences are far more severe. Victims often learn that such content exists only months later, because distribution algorithms operate autonomously.

The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status, which would allow other victims across the country to join the case. xAI has not yet commented publicly; the company traditionally interacts with the press very rarely.

Grok is integrated into the X platform (formerly Twitter) and is also available as a standalone app. After several waves of criticism, the "spicy mode" functionality was adjusted and restricted, but according to the lawsuit, the measures taken proved insufficient.

The suit against xAI fits into a broad legal trend: victims of AI generation are turning to the courts more and more often. Earlier, similar cases targeted social platforms that failed to act in time against deepfake content. Now plaintiffs are trying to place responsibility directly on the developers of generative models. The outcome of this case could set an important precedent and determine how serious the legal consequences are for companies that ignore safety when launching powerful generative AI systems.