Ashley St. Clair, the mother of Elon Musk’s son Romulus, is suing the tech billionaire’s artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI, alleging the AI chatbot, called Grok, created explicit sexual images of her without her consent.
St. Clair filed the lawsuit in New York on Jan. 15. It alleges she had notified xAI that users were creating illicit deepfake photos of her “in sexually explicit poses.”
She requested that the Grok service be prevented from creating non-consensual images, according to the legal documents obtained by NBC News and viewed by Global News.
“xAI’s product Grok, a generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) chatbot, uses AI to undress, humiliate, and sexually exploit victims — creating genuine looking, altered deep fake content of children covered in semen, women stripped naked and in sexually explicit bikinis, and Holocaust survivors in bikinis in front of concentration camps,” the lawsuit reads.
St. Clair, 27, claims that Grok “created and disseminated altered, deepfake content” of her on the social media platform X “as a child stripped down to a string bikini, and as an adult in sexually explicit poses.”
She reported the images to X and requested their removal, according to the lawsuit. But instead, she claims that Grok “proceeded to place warnings for ‘nudity, sexual content, violence, gore, or hateful symbols’ on St. Clair’s responses to Grok and deboosted her account while simultaneously keeping the images up.”
“X then, without explanation, removed St. Clair’s Premium subscription, her verification checkmark, and demonetized her account by banning her from the monetization and subscriber program, despite her paying for an annual subscription in August of 2025,” the lawsuit reads. “St. Clair has now been banned from purchasing Premium entirely without cause or explanation.”
The lawsuit states that as a result of the images, St. Clair has “suffered, and continues to suffer, serious personal injuries, including but not limited to emotional distress, psychological trauma, loss of privacy, reputational harm, and fear of continued dissemination.”
St. Clair is asking for xAI to stop using her image and is seeking monetary damages, including lawyer’s fees incurred.
“This harm flowed directly from deliberate design choices that enabled Grok to be used as a tool of harassment and humiliation. Companies should not be able to escape responsibility when the products they build predictably cause this kind of harm. We intend to hold Grok accountable and to help establish clear legal boundaries for the entire public’s benefit to prevent AI from being weaponized for abuse,” Goldberg added.
After St. Clair filed her lawsuit in New York, it was transferred to the federal Southern District of New York after a request from xAI, according to court documents.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
“xAI files this Notice of Removal solely for the purpose of removing the instant Action and does not waive, and specifically reserves, any and all defenses, arguments, and affirmative matters,” the notice of removal reads.
The company then sued St. Clair in federal court in Texas on Thursday, claiming she violated xAI’s terms of service, and requested damages of more than $75,000.
It said that any claims against xAI must be filed in either federal court in the Northern District of Texas or in state courts in Tarrant County, Texas, because that is where the company is based.
St. Clair and Musk, 54, are currently in a dispute over the custody of their son after she publicly addressed her “blatant transphobia” on social media.
“I feel immense guilt for my role. And even more guilt that things I have said in the past may have caused my son’s sister more pain,” she wrote on Jan. 11, appearing to reference Musk’s daughter Vivian, who is transgender.
“I also haven’t said much on this bc I have gone back and forth over whether my voice would be helpful on the issue since it will be framed as disingenuous or just turning [because] I’m ‘scorned,’” she added.
On Jan. 12, Musk referenced St. Clair’s remarks in a post on X and stated he would be “filing for full custody.”
“I will be filing for full custody today, given her statements implying she might transition a one-year-old boy,” Musk wrote in a post on X on Jan. 12.
As of this writing, it’s not known if Musk followed through on filing.
St. Clair’s lawsuit against xAI comes as Canada’s privacy watchdog expands its investigation into Musk’s X Corporation in light of the company allowing its AI chatbot to generate sexualized images of women and children. On Thursday, the office announced the investigation would grow to include xAI.
Governments around the world have threatened investigations or regulatory action over Grok’s production of sexualized images of people, particularly women, and users’ requests to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Indonesia and Malaysia both banned Grok last week, while other countries and the European Commission have threatened investigations that could result in significant fines for the U.S.-based social media company.
“Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images, it does so only according to user requests,” Musk added, claiming Grok will refuse to produce anything illegal.
— With files from Global News’ Alex Boutilier
About the Author
