Grok's sexualized deepfakes: Affected minors sue in the US
In the US, three individuals have filed a lawsuit against xAI after its AI chatbot Grok allegedly generated sexualized nude images of them.
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In the US, three individuals have filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk's AI company xAI because its AI chatbot Grok allegedly created sexualized deepfakes of them while they were minors. This was published by The Washington Post, which explained that two of the three plaintiffs are still minors, while the third person has since become an adult. All three now face a life where they will repeatedly be reminded that alleged nude images of them are being shared online. And all because xAI and Elon Musk saw an opportunity to “profit off the sexual predation of real people, including children,” the newspaper quotes from the lawsuit.
Victims will be reminded for a lifetime
According to the summary, one of the incidents already occurred last year, weeks before Grok's sexualized deepfakes became a global sensation. The plaintiff was alerted that nude images of her were being distributed on Discord. There, she found not only manipulated images of herself created with the help of AI but also of at least 18 other girls she knew from her school. The person, who has since been arrested, allegedly used the deepfakes as a bartering item on Telegram to obtain sexualized images of other minors.
The other plaintiffs learned in February that the suspect had also created alleged nude images of them and used Grok for it. All three were added to a child abuse database and will therefore be informed throughout their lives if deepfakes of them appear in criminal proceedings, explains the law firm representing them. “These are children whose school photographs and family pictures were turned into child sexual abuse material by a billion-dollar company’s AI tool and then traded among predators,” it further states. Without xAI, “this harmful, illegal content could never, and would never, have existed.” They will hold the company accountable for every affected child.
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Grok's sexualized deepfakes caused outrage at the beginning of the year. It was already clear then that users had also used the AI account on X to digitally “undress” photos of minors. The creation of these sexualized images was possible without the consent of those affected, and the results were publicly viewable on the microblogging service. X then allowed the claim to spread that it was only “isolated cases,” but millions of images were counted. Several states and the EU have heavily criticized the events and promised countermeasures. xAI eventually restricted the function. However, the generation of such content is still not reliably prevented.
(mho)
