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xAI Sues South Carolina Man Alleging Grok Use to Create Deepfakes
xAI filed suit Tuesday in federal court in Texas against Terry Harwood, a South Carolina man arrested in February on child exploitation charges. The complaint accuses him of uploading images of adults and minors to generate explicit material in violation of terms of service.
Jul 15, 2:24 PM·1m read2 sources
Rule enforcementAI misuse
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XAI filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in Texas against Terry Harwood, accusing the South Carolina man of using its Grok system to create sexually explicit deepfakes. The complaint alleges Harwood uploaded non-sexual images of adults and minors and attempted to generate explicit material based on them. It also claims he created non-consensual sexual imagery of adults.
XAI said the actions violated its terms of service and constituted a calculated scheme to weaponize the tool for criminal ends. Harwood was arrested in February on charges of sexually exploiting minors. The company seeks unspecified monetary damages and a permanent injunction barring him from using Grok.
The case is one of the first brought by an AI company against a user for allegedly using the system to generate child sexual abuse material. xAI said it enforces its rules through account suspensions, terminations, and reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In 2026 the company suspended 52,222 accounts and made 73,604 reports to NCMEC, resulting in at least 244 arrests.
Spokespeople for xAI did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Contact information for Harwood was not immediately available. The lawsuit follows global scrutiny of Grok over allegations that users have generated non-consensual sexualized deepfakes.
