NEW YORK — The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children has filed a lawsuit against the billionaire’s artificial intelligence company, alleging that its Grok chatbot enabled users to generate sexually exploitative deepfake images of her, causing humiliation and emotional distress.
Ashley St. Clair, 27, who describes herself as a writer and political strategist, filed the case Thursday in New York City state Supreme Court against xAI, the company behind Grok, which operates on Musk’s social media platform X.
In her complaint, St. Clair claims that users were able to manipulate a photograph of her taken when she was 14 years old, altering the fully dressed image to depict her in a bikini. She also alleges that other images portrayed her as an adult in sexualized poses and in a bikini bearing swastikas. St. Clair is Jewish.
Lawyers for xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. In an email to The Associated Press, xAI replied only, “Legacy Media Lies,” when asked about the lawsuit and its allegations.
St. Clair said she began reporting the deepfake images to X last year and requested their removal. She alleged that the platform initially told her the images did not violate its policies, later promising not to allow her images to be used or altered without her consent. She further claimed that X subsequently removed her premium subscription and verification badge, prevented her from monetizing her account, which has about one million followers, and continued to allow what she described as degrading fake images of her to circulate.
“I have suffered and continue to suffer serious pain and mental distress as a result of xAI’s role in creating and distributing these digitally altered images of me,” St. Clair said in a statement attached to the lawsuit. “I am humiliated and feel like this nightmare will never stop so long as Grok continues to generate these images of me.”
She added that she lives in fear of people who view the deepfakes.
St. Clair is the mother of Musk’s 16-month-old son, Romulus, and resides in New York City. She is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages for alleged infliction of emotional distress and other claims, as well as court orders barring xAI from allowing further deepfakes of her.
Later Thursday, xAI moved to transfer the case to federal court in Manhattan. The company also filed a countersuit the same day in federal court in the Northern District of Texas, alleging that St. Clair violated the terms of her xAI user agreement, which it says requires lawsuits against the company to be filed in federal court in Texas. xAI is seeking an undisclosed monetary judgment.
X is based in Texas, where Musk maintains a residence and where Tesla is headquartered in Austin.
Carrie Goldberg, St. Clair’s lawyer, criticized the countersuit as an unprecedented tactic.
“Ms. St. Clair will be vigorously defending her forum in New York,” Goldberg said in a statement. “But frankly, any jurisdiction will recognize the gravamen of Ms. St. Clair’s claims — that by manufacturing nonconsensual sexually explicit images of girls and women, xAI is a public nuisance and a not reasonably safe product.”
The lawsuit follows an announcement by X earlier this week that Grok would no longer be able to edit photos to portray real people in revealing clothing in jurisdictions where such actions are illegal, after a global backlash over sexualized images of women and children.
X also said it is implementing additional safeguards, including limiting image creation and editing to paid accounts to improve accountability. The company reiterated its zero-tolerance policy for child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content, stating that such material would be removed immediately and accounts involved in child sex abuse materials reported to law enforcement.
Edgardo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
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