Recently, Ashley St. Clair, the ex-girlfriend of Elon Musk, filed a lawsuit against his artificial intelligence company xAI, accusing its chatbot Grok of generating and spreading explicit images of her without her consent. This incident has not only drawn public attention but also brought the ethical issues of AI technology back into the spotlight.

According to a report by Bloomberg, St. Clair filed the lawsuit in New York, stating that Grok altered her childhood photos to generate multiple images of her naked or in other sexual situations, which were then spread on the social media platform X. St. Clair said she had repeatedly asked xAI to delete these images, but was unsuccessful. What is more infuriating, St. Clair claims that after she requested deletion, xAI did not take any action, but instead retaliated by revoking her monetization eligibility on the X platform and continued to generate more inappropriate images.

Her lawyer mentioned in the lawsuit that Grok had promised not to generate explicit images related to her, but the reality contradicted this promise. St. Clair stated in the lawsuit that xAI had design flaws and inadequate user protection measures, failing to effectively prevent this foreseeable harm.

The exposure of this case coincides with the increasing global scrutiny of image generation technologies by governments and regulatory bodies. In response to public pressure, xAI has recently announced the deactivation of Grok's ability to generate explicit images of real people, aiming to protect user privacy and safety.

Meanwhile, after St. Clair filed the lawsuit, the X platform also filed a counter-suit against her, accusing her of breaching the contract by not filing the lawsuit in the designated court. Currently, xAI and X have not made any public responses to these allegations.

This incident has sparked widespread public discussion about AI technology, especially regarding the balance between technological innovation and the protection of personal privacy. As technology develops, ensuring users are not harassed and protecting their legal rights has become an important issue that society needs to address urgently.