CSAM Deepfake Lawsuit Expands to Include Stability AI Over Grok Chatbot

The class-action lawsuit against SpaceXAI, formerly operating as xAI and the maker of the Grok chatbot, has been expanded to include new plaintiffs and a new defendant. In an amended complaint filed Tuesday, two women, from Wyoming and Wisconsin, joined the case alongside three teenage girls from Tennessee who filed the original suit earlier this year. Stability AI, maker of the Stable Diffusion image generator, was also added as a co-defendant.

The case is being heard in the United States and concerns the use of artificial intelligence tools to create child sexual abuse material, or CSAM. According to the complaint, the perpetrators, among them an acquaintance of one plaintiff and the stepfather of another, allegedly used AI models from SpaceXAI and Stability AI to turn photos taken when the victims were minors into sexually explicit content.

The Most Severe Case

The most harrowing account in the filing concerns a woman in her twenties from Wyoming, identified as Jane Doe 4. According to the lawsuit, her stepfather used SpaceXAI's Grok chatbot to generate nearly 7,000 sexually explicit images and videos from a single photo taken when she was about 11 years old. The lawsuit also alleges that SpaceXAI, like other internet companies required under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A to report suspected child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, failed to adequately fulfill that obligation.

Stability AI Named as New Defendant

The amended complaint also names Stability AI as jointly responsible for the first time, in connection with claims brought by the three original teenage plaintiffs from Tennessee. The filing specifies that the app on the perpetrator's phone, used to create CSAM depicting the plaintiffs, relied on image-generation tools belonging to Stability AI, maker of the popular Stable Diffusion model.

We want to put safeguards in place so we don't inflict this harm on an entire generation of children - Annika Martin, attorney representing the plaintiffs

Annika Martin, the attorney representing all five plaintiffs, says the goal of the lawsuit is to force generative AI companies to implement more effective safeguards before similar harm reaches more minors on a mass scale. SpaceXAI did not respond to a request for comment. Stability AI said suggestions that safety was not a priority for the company are entirely false.

Legal Context and Industry Implications

The case is part of a growing wave of lawsuits against AI companies over the generation of illegal content involving minors, as image and video tools become increasingly accessible and harder to distinguish from real material. US law, including 18 U.S.C. § 2258A, requires internet companies to report suspected child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and failing to do so can create civil liability separate from the criminal liability of the perpetrators who directly created the material.

For makers of generative models, including those operating in Europe and subject to the EU AI Act, the case signals that safeguards against generating content that sexualizes minors must work effectively at the model level itself, not just in usage policies or terms of service. Regulatory and judicial pressure in the United States, where the case is being heard, is in practice setting standards that global platforms, including those available to Polish users, will have to meet.

SpaceXAI is the new name of the company formerly known as xAI, adopted this month after its merger with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The name change does not affect the ongoing legal proceedings, in which the company still appears under its former corporate name, xAI Corp.

Sources: NPR (npr.org), WRVO Public Media (wrvo.org)