Grok deepfakes of nude Arkansas teen have ‘completely devastated’ family, lawsuit says
The mother of an Arkansas teen is suing Elon Musk’s X Corporation and its artificial intelligence arm, xAI, developer of the Grok chatbot, after the technology was used to turn innocent photos of the boy into sexually explicit imagery that was widely shared, according to a federal complaint reviewed by The Independent.
Plaintiff “Jane Roe” filed the complaint August 13 on behalf of son “John Doe,” a 16-year-old who enjoys football, golf, fishing and “loves to ride his bike.” The complaint says he is part of his church’s youth group, and, like “many minors of that age, he is blissfully ignorant to the harsh realities of the world in which we live in.”
In June, Roe was contacted by local police, who told her they had received a tip that pictures of Doe were being transformed into CSAM – Child Sexual Abuse Material – via Grok, according to the complaint. An unnamed perpetrator had harnessed the technology to create “thousands” of hardcore images and videos of other local children, as well, the complaint states.
It describes the material as CSAM because, as the complaint explains, “‘pornography’ implies a consensual act between adults, whereas this material includes minors who cannot legally consent.”
Attorney Derek Potts, who is representing Roe and Doe, said on Friday that the case, now pending in Fayetteville federal court, is among the first of many additional ones to come.
“This is the fourth such lawsuit of what appears to be countless more coming in the future as we learn more about the true scope and size of these tragic events for the children and their families,” Potts told The Independent. “The creation of CSAM by artificial intelligence should not be happening under any circumstances and we are honored to be on the legal frontline to seek not only justice for the families we represent but to hopefully facilitate much needed change of how artificial intelligence is designed and allowed to operate going forward.”
Grok “generated and disseminated CSAM images and videos of… Doe over the course of several weeks,” the complaint states. It says they showed Doe’s “entire 16-year-old body, nude, including his genitals, and without any clothes,” and “portrayed… Doe engaged in various sex acts.”
“Although the images and videos were synthetically generated, the harm inflicted upon [Doe] and his family is real, profound and enduring,” according to the complaint.
“They can’t sleep, they can’t eat, and this has caused Jane Roe extreme stress and uncertainty,” it says.
While Doe “currently remains in the dark about much of this,” his mother has developed “overwhelming anxiety,” “depression” and lives in “constant fear that these CSAM images and videos will persist and exist through John Doe’s lifetime – there is no way to be certain that they are fully eliminated, ever.”
“These CSAM images and videos could be trafficked, traded and maintained by pedophiles for eternity,” the complaint states.
It emphasizes that the case is “not about unforeseen technological malfunctions,” but rather “about [xAI’s]’ corporate choices, including [its] choice to monetize a system that they could have reasonably foreseen would be used to create child sexual abuse material, nonconsensual intimate imagery, and sexually explicit deepfakes depicting identifiable individuals, including minors like John Doe.”
An xAI spokesperson did not respond Friday to a request for comment.
Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, founded xAI in 2023. He said the company’s generative AI output would be “rebellious,” rather than “safe, cautious or filtered,” the complaint notes.
