Lawsuit: Man used Grok to create 7,000 child sex images of stepdaughter, then killed himself
An amended class-action lawsuit reveals that a stepfather used xAI's Grok to generate 7,000 explicit images of his 11-year-old stepdaughter, and after arrest he committed suicide, while xAI allegedly obstructed the investigation.
A disturbing case has emerged in an expanded class-action lawsuit against xAI and X, filed on Tuesday. According to the amended complaint, a man identified as the stepfather of Jane Doe 4 used Grok, an AI chatbot developed by xAI, to create approximately 7,000 sexually explicit images and videos of his stepdaughter from a single photo taken when she was 11. The content depicted incest and rape, and the system did not flag any harmful behavior until the man entered a prompt for "gang rape." Only then did xAI submit a report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). However, despite mandatory reporting requirements, xAI allegedly refused for weeks to provide investigators with the user's IP address, hindering the identification of the perpetrator. After law enforcement obtained a warrant and arrested the man, a forensic review of his devices revealed thousands of AI-generated images. Two days after being released on bail, the man shot himself, leaving Jane Doe 4 in a state of extreme crisis, suffering from anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. The lawsuit accuses xAI of prioritizing profits over child safety by deliberately obstructing the investigation. NCMEC data cited in the complaint shows that 90% of xAI's CyberTipline reports lacked actionable information for law enforcement. The lawsuit also adds Stability AI as a defendant, alleging that its open-weight models are used by third-party "nudify" apps to generate CSAM. Researchers estimate that the Stable Diffusion family accounts for 42.7% of such images online. Lawyers say thousands of victims may be eligible to join the suit, and the only remedy is for AI companies to block all nudity in their models.
