According to Reuters, Elon Musk's AI company xAI has filed a lawsuit against Terry Haworth, a man from South Carolina, accusing him of abusing Grok to generate child sexual abuse material. Haworth was arrested in February this year on suspicion of exploiting minors. xAI alleges that he violated the service terms, and on Tuesday local time, the company submitted the complaint to a federal court in Texas.

Generating deepfake pornography using ordinary people's photos

In the complaint, xAI accused Haworth of uploading photos of adults and minors to Grok, then attempting to generate pornographic deepfake content featuring those individuals in the photos. He is also accused of creating explicit images without the consent of the adults involved. Cases where an AI company proactively sues a user for using AI to generate pornographic content are extremely rare, making this case significant. xAI is seeking an unspecified amount of damages from Haworth and a permanent ban from using Grok. The complaint states, "The defendant deliberately used the plaintiff's tool as a weapon for crime."

Grok's content safety issues under global scrutiny, leading to 244 arrests

At the time of submitting the lawsuit, xAI is facing global scrutiny over content safety issues with Grok, as external parties have accused Grok of allowing users to create explicit deepfakes without the consent of the individuals involved. In the complaint, xAI revealed that the company has suspended 52,222 accounts in 2026, submitted 73,604 reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the United States, and contributed to the arrest of at least 244 people. This data reflects the increasing efforts by AI platforms to address content safety and highlights the serious reality of AI-generated content being misused.