Lawsuit alleges Grok used to create 7,000 child sexual abuse images
A class action lawsuit alleges that xAI's Grok chatbot was used to generate approximately 7,000 sexually explicit images of an 11-year-old girl, and claims xAI failed to adequately report the abuse material to authorities and inadequately safeguarded against such misuse. The complaint names both xAI and Stability AI as defendants.
What happened
An amended class action complaint alleges that a stepfather used xAI's Grok to generate approximately 7,000 sexually explicit images and videos of his 11-year-old stepdaughter over several months from a single photograph of the child.
The complaint states that xAI submitted only one CyberTip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) after the user entered a prompt referring to gang rape, but did not include the generated images or the user's IP address in its report, despite multiple requests from authorities.
Reported impact
The alleged victim, identified as Jane Doe 4, reported that the abuse impacted her childhood. The complaint notes that the stepfather was later arrested, and that he died by suicide two days after being charged.
Index analysis
The lawsuit alleges that Grok was designed without adequate safeguards to prevent creation of child sexual abuse material from photographs of real children, and that features including 'Spicy Mode' enabled the chatbot to generate explicit images despite safeguards that should have blocked such requests.
xAI previously acknowledged problems with Grok's image-generation safeguards after reports in January that the chatbot produced images of minors in minimal clothing, describing the issue as 'lapses in safeguards' and stating that improvements were under way.
Governance controls
The complaint alleges that xAI hindered the investigation by withholding key information after filing its CyberTip, including the AI-generated images and the user's IP address. Plaintiffs are seeking an injunction requiring stronger safeguards.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.