A plaintiff identified as Jane Doe 4 has joined a lawsuit originally filed by three Tennessee teenagers against Elon Musk’s company xAI, claiming the firm’s chatbot Grok played a role in producing child sexual abuse material.
According to a report in The Washington Post, Jane Doe 4 alleges her stepfather used Grok to manipulate a photo taken of her when she was 11 years old and created more than 7,000 explicit images from it. The woman also said her stepfather was found dead from an apparent suicide two days after those images were uncovered during a law enforcement raid.
"Limitless access to these tools is spreading so quickly," the woman told The Washington Post. "It is taking everyday life and turning it into child sexual abuse."
Allegations in the lawsuit
The Tennessee teenagers who filed the original lawsuit accuse xAI (referred to in filings as now part of SpaceX) of failing to implement basic safeguards to prevent Grok from being used to produce explicit images of real people, including minors. The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for the suit.
The lawsuit notes that earlier this year the social platform X (formerly Twitter) was flooded with millions of Grok-generated sexualized images, an incident cited as context for concerns about the technology’s potential for abuse.
Responses and resources
TechCrunch has reached out to xAI for comment. The Washington Post report provided the detailed allegations now reflected in the amended lawsuit.
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