Ashley St. Clair Sues Elon Musk’s xAI Over Alleged Deepfake Images

Last Updated:January 16, 2026, 17:33 IST

The legal complaint states that Grok allowed users to digitally manipulate images, including features that could remove or replace clothing.

Tesla owner Elon Musk

Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, has filed a lawsuit against xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by the billionaire, accusing it of negligence and causing emotional harm.

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday and centres on the alleged misuse of xAI’s chatbot, Grok, to create sexually explicit deepfake images of her.

According to a report by NBC News, St. Clair claims that users of Grok were able to generate nonconsensual and explicit AI-generated images using her likeness. She alleges that the company failed to act decisively even after she raised repeated concerns about the misuse of the tool.

The legal complaint states that Grok allowed users to digitally manipulate images, including features that could remove or replace clothing. St. Clair argues that these capabilities made it easy to create harmful deepfake content.

Her lawsuit was first filed in a New York state court but was later transferred to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York at xAI’s request.

In the filing, St. Clair says she informed xAI that Grok users were producing illegal deepfake images of her. These included depictions of her “as a child stripped down to a string bikini" and “as an adult in sexually explicit poses."

She requested safeguards to stop the creation of such content. The lawsuit notes that xAI assured her that her “images will not be used or altered without explicit consent in any future generations or responses."

Despite this assurance, the complaint alleges that Grok continued to generate explicit AI images involving her likeness. It further claims that xAI retaliated by demonetising her account on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The lawsuit describes Grok’s image-generation abilities as a serious design flaw. It argues that xAI should have foreseen the risk of the tool being used to harass individuals and create unlawful content.

The filing states that those targeted by the deepfakes, including St. Clair, suffered severe emotional distress. It adds, “Defendant engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct, exceeding all bounds of decency and utterly intolerable in a civilized society."

On the same day, xAI filed a separate lawsuit against St. Clair in a federal court in Texas. The company alleges she breached its terms of service and is seeking damages of more than $75,000.

xAI argues that any legal claims against it must be filed in federal court in the Northern District of Texas or in state courts in Tarrant County, Texas.

Last week, X limited the @Grok reply bot’s ability to generate images that nonconsensually depict identifiable individuals in revealing clothing.

However, similar image-generation features were still accessible through the Grok app, its website, and the Grok tab on X at the time of reporting.

News world Ashley St. Clair Sues Elon Musk’s xAI Over Alleged Deepfake Images

Read More