The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children is suing his AI company, saying its Grok chatbot allowed users to create deeply fake images of her sexually exploiting her that caused her humiliation and emotional distress.
Ashley St. Clair, 27, who describes herself as a writer and political strategist, alleges in a lawsuit filed Thursday against xAI in New York City that the images include a fully clothed photo of her as a 14-year-old that was altered to show her in a bikini, and others showing her as an adult in sexual positions. St. Clair is Jewish. Grok is on Musk’s social media platform X.
Attorneys for xAI did not immediately return emails seeking comment Friday. On Wednesday, following a global backlash over sexualized images of women and children, X announced that Grok will no longer be able to edit photos to depict real people with revealing clothing, where that is illegal.
When asked about the lawsuit and its allegations, xAI responded only “legacy media lies” in an email to The Associated Press.
St. Clair said she reported the deepfakes to X when they started appearing last year and asked them to take them down. She said the platform previously responded that the images did not violate its policies. It then promised not to allow her images to be used or altered without her consent, she said.
St. Clair said the social platform then retaliated against her by removing her Premium X membership and verification checkmark, not allowing her to monetize her account, which has 1 million followers, and continued to allow her offensive fake images.
“I have suffered and continue to suffer severe pain and mental anguish as a result of xAI’s role in creating and distributing these digitally altered images of me,” she said in a document attached to the lawsuit. “I am humiliated and feel like this nightmare will never stop as long as Grok continues to generate these images of me.”
She also said that she lives in fear of people watching her deepfakes.
St. Clair is the mother of Musk’s 16-month-old son, Romulus. She lives in New York City, where she litigated the state Supreme Court. She is seeking an undisclosed amount of damages for alleged infliction of emotional distress and other claims, as well as a court order immediately barring xAI from allowing more of her deep fakes.
Later Thursday, xAI’s lawyers transferred the case to federal court in Manhattan, asking a judge to hear the case there. And on the same day, xAI also countersued St. Clair in federal court for the Northern District of Texas, alleging that it violated the terms of its xAI user agreement, requiring it to file a lawsuit against the company in federal court in Texas. It is seeking an undisclosed money judgment against him.
X is based in Texas, where Musk has a home and his electric automaker Tesla is headquartered in Austin.
St. Clair’s attorney Cary Goldberg called the countersuit a “quick” move that he had never seen by a defendant before.
“Ms. St. Clair will vigorously defend her forum in New York,” Goldberg said in a statement. “But clearly, any jurisdiction would recognize the seriousness of Ms. St. Clair’s claims — that by producing objectionable sexually explicit images of girls and women, xAI is a public nuisance and not a reasonably safe product.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, X said it is implementing other safeguards in Grok, including limiting image creation and editing to payment accounts, which will improve accountability. It said it has zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation, objectionable nudity and gratuitous sexual content, and it will immediately remove such content and report accounts involved in child sexual abuse content to law enforcement.
