California sends cease-and-desist letter to xAI over AI-generated deepfakes by Grok
California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta is demanding that xAI takes immediate action to stop the creation and distribution of nonconsensual intimate images of women and child sexual abuse material.
Elon Musk and his companies xAI and X have been under scrutiny for quite some time for “undressing” young girls and women and spreading these images on social media platform X. There have also been instances of minors being depicted almost naked, thus creating the illusion of child molestation and other forms of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
X has officially apologized for these incidents, and Musk even threatened to remove all users who generate and upload illegal content onto its platform. Still, that doesn’t seem enough to satisfy lawmakers, politicians, and civil rights groups.
Last Friday, California’s Attorney General Office announced a formal investigation into the conception and distribution of nonconsensual intimate images of women and children by Grok, an AI model that was developed by xAI and is integrated with X.
“The avalanche of reports detailing this material, at times depicting women and children engaged in sexual activity, is shocking and, as my office has determined, potentially illegal,” California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement last week.
On top of the investigation, Bonta also sent a cease-and-desist letter to xAI, demanding that the company immediately stops the creation and distribution of sexually explicit images. “The creation of this material is illegal. I fully expect xAI to immediately comply. California has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse material,” he adds.
Bonta calls on xAI to stop creating, disclosing, or publicizing “digitized sexually explicit material,” and facilitating or aiding and abetting the creation, disclosure, or publication of sexually explicit deepfakes of people under 18.
“I expect xAI to take immediate action to address these issues. I also expect that xAI will provide confirmation to my office that it has stopped the creation and distribution of the problematic material and of the steps it is taking to address these issues no later than January 20, 2026,” Bonta concludes his letter.
Similar investigations into Grok and xAI have been announced in France, India, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. Brussels is also investigating the matter.
“This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling. This is disgusting. This is how we see it, and this has no place in Europe,” Thomas Regnier, spokesperson for the European Commission, said.