Elon Musk is once again at the center of controversy, and this time it is on behalf of xAI, the company behind the Grok chatbot. The firm filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Minnesota just days before a historic law comes into force that seeks to stop “nudification” technology, which allows the creation of fake photos and videos of naked people using artificial intelligence. The rule, which will become the first of its kind in the United States, goes into effect this Saturday, August 1, and xAI wants a judge to block it before that happens.

The curious thing is that Musk's company is not saying that it is wrong to prohibit this type of non-consensual content. In fact, in its 38-page lawsuit, xAI acknowledges that Minnesota has every right to pursue the distribution of AI-generated nude images without permission from the person involved. The problem, according to them, is that the law “extends far beyond that objective” and ends up punishing content that would be protected by the First Amendment.

Why xAI says the law is “clumsy” and too broad

The lawsuit takes direct aim at Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, describing the rule as “overly broad” and a “clumsy attempt” to ban nudification. Among the most striking arguments is that the legal definition of “intimate part” would include parts of the body that are normally shown in public, such as men without shirts, people in bathing suits or shorts.

Additionally, xAI warns that the law has no “safe harbor” for companies that make genuine efforts to prevent this type of content, even if they already have near-perfect technical controls in place to prevent it. And the issue of money also weighs heavily on the claim. Fines can reach $500,000 for each violation, and the company itself calculated that with just 100,000 banned images, legal exposure could skyrocket to a staggering $50 billion.

The criticism against xAI did not wait

As expected, xAI's move did not go down well with those who promoted the law. State Rep. Jess Hanson, who authored the House version of the bill, called the lawsuit “absolutely disgusting.” For her part, Senator Erin Maye Quade, who led the initiative, had already anticipated this type of resistance and was blunt about it: she said that her law was written specifically to resist legal challenges while protecting freedom of expression, and that she will continue “fighting Big Tech and its endless attempts to profit from image-based sexual abuse.” Months ago, he had already warned that companies "cannot continue releasing this technology to the world without consequences."

Many see this lawsuit as another move by Musk to shield Grok, whose image generator has been involved in controversy for allowing sexualized content, and interpret it as part of a pattern where big technology companies prioritize their business before the safety of users.

Apple and Google are also under the microscope

This is not a problem unique to xAI. “Stripping” apps have been under total scrutiny for months, and both Apple and Google have already had to react. An investigation by the Tech Transparency Project detected dozens of these camouflaged applications in the App Store and Google Play, forcing both companies to eliminate dozens of them.

The pressure intensified when San Francisco prosecutor David Chiu sent cease and desist letters demanding the removal of at least 13 such apps, giving both companies 28 days to act. Google has already made clear that its policy prohibits depictions of sexual nudity, while Apple explicitly prohibits “overtly pornographic” material. The Minnesota case could become the first major judicial test of how far states can go to regulate artificial intelligence, and the entire technology sector is watching closely how it ends.

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