xAI Sues South Carolina Man Allegedly Using Grok to Create Explicit Images

XAI filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in Texas against Terry Harwood, a South Carolina man arrested in February on charges of sexually exploiting minors. The complaint alleged that Harwood uploaded non-sexual images of adults and minors to the Grok AI system and attempted to generate sexually explicit deepfakes based on those images.

The filing also alleged that Harwood created non-consensual sexual imagery of adults and that his actions violated the company's terms of service.

XAI asked the court for an unspecified amount of monetary damages and a permanent injunction barring Harwood from using Grok. "Defendant’s actions were a calculated scheme to weaponize Plaintiff’s tool for criminal ends, exposing real victims to profound and lasting harm, while exposing Plaintiff to significant legal risk and reputational damage," xAI stated in the lawsuit.

The company enforces its rules through account suspensions, terminations, and reports of suspected child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing + Exploited Children, the complaint said.

The case is one of the first brought by an AI company against a user for allegedly using an AI system to generate child sexual abuse material. Spokespeople for xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Contact information for Harwood was not immediately available.