Three teens are suing Elon Musk’s xAI, accusing Grok of illegally turning their real photos into AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CASM) – all while the company allegedly promoted the chatbot’s “Spicy Mode” and kept the feature running even after the abuse became public.

The class action suit, filed in the Northern District of California on Monday, says the Elon Musk-owned chatbot took real photographs off the web to create AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) for other Grok users.

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein and Baehr-Jones Law, the law firms handling the case, filed the child exploitation lawsuit on behalf of three victims whose real images were allegedly altered by Grok into sexualized images or videos.

“xAI knowingly designed, marketed, and profited from an AI image and video generator capable of creating sexually explicit content depicting real people, including children, while refusing to implement the industry-standard CSAM prevention measures used by every other major AI company,” the law firm accused.

Lawsuit says xAI built and marketed the risk

The complaint alleges xAI “deliberately designed Grok to create sexually explicit content,” marketed a “Spicy Mode” to attract users, and set the model’s prompt to assume “good intent” when users referenced words such as “teenage” or “girl.”

The law firm also claims Musk personally promoted Grok’s ability to undress people on X, helping fuel a viral trend in which users directed the chatbot to digitally undress both real women and children.

Lieff Cabraser partner Annika K. Martin said the case centers on 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.”

Martin said the victims intend “to hold xAI accountable for every child they harmed in this way.”

Prosecuting attorney and survivor of abuse advocate Vanessa Baehr-Jones put it even more bluntly, "xAI chose to profit off the sexual predation of real people, including children, despite knowing full well the consequences of creating such a dangerous product.”

Tracking Grok’s undressing scandal

Musk and his AI chatbot Grok have faced major backlash from users around the world for not only allowing the practice to continue once exposed by the media in early January, but also letting it happen in the first place.

In response to the criticism, Musk took to X, declaring that anyone using Grok to create illegal content would face the same consequences as if they had uploaded it directly, although initially he had posted that those concerned, including UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer, simply just wanted "to suppress free speech."

On January 14th, xAI announced it was implementing “technological measures” to stop Grok from undressing real people “in territories where it is illegal.”

"We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers."

- Excerpt from Safety on X statement, 14 January

The company further said it would limit image creation and editing to paid subscribers on X, even though the tool was still readily available to users through its app and website.

“Rather than disabling the feature, xAI restricted image generation to paying subscribers, and advertised 'Spicy Mode' as a premium benefit," Lieff Cabraser said.

But even after announcing the new guardrails, women across social media began to report users finding ways to manipulate Grok into creating the sexually explicit content anyway.

The lawsuit claims that third-party apps with licenses to access Grok were still able to use xAI servers and platforms to produce CSAM content upon customers' requests, creating an additional revenue stream for xAI.

Deepfake CSAM spreads to the dark web

Lieff Cabraser says that once these deepfake images are created, they can be shared without the depicted victim’s knowledge and without consent.

The law firm also points to the scale of the alleged problem, citing the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which estimates that Grok generated roughly three million sexualized images during an 11-day period in late December 2025 and early January 2026.

Of those millions of digitally undressed images, 23,000 appeared to depict children, the CCDH said.

Furthermore, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) warns that many of these images have since migrated to the dark web, where they are being repurposed by predators.

The UK-based non-profit says there was a whopping 26,362% increase in AI videos showing child sexual abuse in 2025, with 65% classified in the most severe category.

“In 2025, the IWF discovered 3,440 AI videos of child sexual abuse compared to only 13 in 2024,” it said.

“Our analysts work tirelessly to get this imagery removed to give victims some hope. But now AI has moved on to such an extent, criminals essentially can have their own child sexual abuse machines to make whatever they want to see,” says Kerry Smith, Chief Executive of the IWF.

Randomly, a study of mostly heterosexual men published Tuesday in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that AI-generated nudes were considered more sexually appealing than real photos.

The law firms say the complaint brings claims under Masha’s Law, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and California state law, while seeking damages, punitive damages, and injunctive relief.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Council of the European Union threw its support behind a proposal by the European Commission to prohibit AI chatbots and other tools from “undressing” EU citizens or creating child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

And last month, senior members of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an inquiry demanding Musk answer questions about Grok's “nudification tool” to clarify policy nuances, existing safety guardrails, and the basis for creating the chatbot's now-controversial Image feature.

Unlock more exclusive Cybernews content on YouTube.