California Attorney General Rob Bonta has issued a formal cease-and-desist order to Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm, xAI. The order demands an immediate halt to the generation and distribution of non-consensual sexual deepfakes and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) via its Grok chatbot.
The action follows an “avalanche of reports” detailing how Grok’s image-generation capabilities—specifically its unmoderated “spicy mode”-have been used to “undress” real people and create explicit imagery of women and minors without their consent.
Legal Violations and Deadlines
The Attorney General’s office cited violations of California AB 621, a law that took effect on January 1, 2026. The statute specifically targets “digitized sexually explicit material” and allows for statutory damages of up to $250,000 for malicious violations. xAI has been given five days to provide the Department of Justice with a plan for total compliance.
High-Profile Lawsuit from Ashley St. Clair
The order arrives alongside a major lawsuit filed by conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children. St. Clair alleges that Grok generated “degrading” deepfakes of her, including images depicting her as a 14-year-old minor.
In a surprising legal maneuver, xAI has filed a countersuit in Texas, alleging that St. Clair violated the platform’s terms of service by filing her case in New York rather than Texas.
Global Regulatory Pressure
California’s move is part of a global wave of crackdowns on xAI’s safety standards:
- United Kingdom: The watchdog Ofcom has launched a formal investigation under the Online Safety Act. UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall warned that the government has the power to block the service entirely if it fails to comply.
- Southeast Asia: Both Indonesia and Malaysia have already temporarily blocked access to Grok following reports of its use in generating explicit content.
In a statement on the X Safety account, the company announced it has implemented “technical measures” to prevent the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing. To increase accountability, the company has also restricted image generation features solely to paying subscribers.
While Elon Musk initially argued that “Grok does not spontaneously generate images” and blamed user requests, he later confirmed that users violating laws would suffer the same consequences as those uploading illegal content manually.