FREEDOM OF PEEP: Elon Musk's xAI sues to stop Minnesota banning 'nudification' tools

Elon Musk's xAI has sued Minnesota in federal court to block the state's attempt to ban the use of AI technology to create fake nude images, just days before the law is set to take effect Saturday.

The State statute, filed Monday, aims to bar apps and websites from creating AI-generated sexualized images of real people without consent, and it seeks to enable victims and the state attorney general's office to pursue companies behind the tools, while imposing damages of at least $500,000 per violation.

xAI, meanwhile, says its Grok image generator, available via X, already prohibits generating nude images, but Minnesota's proposed ban would expose the company to civil penalties.

"The statute 'imposes an overbroad, content-based ban on free speech and the tools of visual expression,'" the Musk company's civil complaint says.

xAI's 38-page complaint says the company does not contest Minnesota's interest in banning non-consensual nude images but that the law, it argues, 'extends far beyond that goal'.

According to the complaint, the statute's wording could reach images that were consented to or even created by the depicted person, and that AI providers would be liable regardless of the safeguards they deploy.