Facing mounting pressure to acknowledge that its chatbot Grok can still be used to generate non-consensual sexualized images of adults and minors, xAI has filed a lawsuit against the first user accused of using its platform in this manner.
The complaint targets Terry Wayne Harwood, who was arrested earlier this year for possession and distribution of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM). According to the lawsuit, xAI assisted in that arrest after discovering that Harwood had been using two xAI accounts for months to undress or ‘nudify’ non-sexual images of multiple victims, including a young girl who appeared to be as young as 10.
This development comes just over a week after a different young girl joined a proposed class action representing several kids allegedly harmed by Grok. She alleged that her stepfather committed suicide after he was discovered using Grok, possibly in conjunction with other AI tools, to create 7,000 sexualized images of her and then distribute them on the dark web.
In this case, the victim alleged that xAI refused to help police identify the user who uploaded her image to Grok. To support claims that it is xAI’s common practice, her lawyers cited a 2026 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) report confirming that 90 percent of xAI’s CyberTipline reports ‘were not actionable by law enforcement because xAI declined to include user information that would allow law enforcement to track and locate perpetrators.’
The lawsuit alleges that Harwood used at least two accounts with convoluted usernames—‘ceae2cb4-a9f6-4885-8ae9-6e2096d084f4’ and ‘befccb94-4029-454d-9f1f-0d4945e8fa7c’—to generate illegal content from December 8 to February 18. Sometimes Grok safeguards did prevent harmful outputs, ‘refusing to follow’ some of the prompts ‘on the basis that such material violated Grok’s content moderation guardrails.’
The lawsuit includes an example of an especially creepy prompt that Grok rejected, using phrases like ‘white slime’ to mask intent to generate sexualized images. However, Harwood explicitly asked the chatbot to ‘remove all her clothing,’ which directly violates xAI user terms against requests to undress real people.
xAI’s lawsuit makes its case for why only users should be liable for Grok-generated CSAM. If the court agreed, such a finding could strengthen xAI’s defense in the looming potential class action, which lawyers estimate could involve thousands of victims. It could also give xAI a hammer to bring down on other users any time a victim comes forward with a complaint.
xAI is partly suing Harwood for breach of contract to avoid ‘substantial legal fees’ and the ‘risk of considerable liability for damages’ that may be sought if any of his alleged victims sues xAI over his harmful Grok use. Musk’s firm argued that Grok should be viewed by the court as ‘a neutral tool, subject to user control.’
The complaint emphasized that xAI’s terms of use draw ‘a bright line’ between safe Grok uses and those that are harmful, and every user agrees to the terms upon sign-up. Users are prohibited from using Grok to ‘undress or nudify real persons,’ or otherwise using the chatbot to alter ‘a real person’s image or likeness to depict them in an intimate or sexual context.’
It is further noted that any CSAM uncovered through xAI’s use of Grok will be reported to NCMEC.
Source: Original article