The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children has filed a lawsuit against his artificial intelligence company, accusing its chatbot Grok of enabling the creation and spread of sexually explicit deepfake images depicting her without consent.
Ashley St. Clair, 27, a New York–based writer and political strategist, filed the lawsuit Thursday in New York State Supreme Court against xAI, the company behind Grok. In her complaint, St. Clair alleges that the chatbot allowed users to generate manipulated images portraying her in sexualized and degrading ways, causing severe emotional distress, reputational harm, and ongoing fear for her safety.
According to the lawsuit, some of the images were created using a real photograph of St. Clair taken when she was 14 years old. The image, she claims, was digitally altered to depict her wearing a bikini. Other alleged deepfakes portray her as an adult in explicit poses or dressed in sexualized clothing marked with swastikas. St. Clair is Jewish.
Grok operates on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, which is also owned by Musk.
Attorneys for xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. When asked about the lawsuit by The Associated Press, the company replied only with a brief statement: “Legacy Media Lies.”
St. Clair said she first reported the deepfake images to X last year, requesting their removal. According to her account, the platform initially told her the content did not violate its policies. She later received assurances that images of her would no longer be generated or altered without consent. Despite that, she claims the sexually explicit images continued to circulate.
She further alleges that X retaliated against her after she complained by removing her paid subscription and verification badge, cutting off her ability to earn income from her account, which has roughly 1 million followers.
“I have suffered and continue to suffer serious pain and mental distress as a result of xAI’s role in creating and distributing these digitally altered images of me,” St. Clair wrote in a statement included with the lawsuit. “I am humiliated and feel like this nightmare will never stop so long as Grok continues to generate these images of me.”
The lawsuit also states that St. Clair now lives in fear of individuals who may view or share the fabricated images.
St. Clair is the mother of Musk’s 16-month-old son, Romulus. She is seeking an unspecified amount in damages, citing claims including intentional infliction of emotional distress, and is asking the court to immediately prohibit xAI from allowing Grok to generate additional deepfake images of her.
Later on Thursday, xAI moved to transfer the case to federal court in Manhattan. On the same day, the company also filed a separate lawsuit against St. Clair in federal court in Texas, alleging she violated the terms of her xAI user agreement. That agreement, according to xAI, requires legal disputes to be filed in federal court in Texas. The company is seeking unspecified monetary damages in that countersuit.
X is headquartered in Texas, where Musk also maintains a residence and where Tesla, his electric vehicle company, is based.
Carrie Goldberg, St. Clair’s attorney, criticized the countersuit as highly unusual and aggressive.
“Ms. St. Clair will be vigorously defending her forum in New York,” Goldberg said in a statement. “But regardless of venue, the core issue remains: xAI’s technology allegedly enabled the creation of nonconsensual sexualized images of girls and women, making it an unsafe product and a public nuisance.”
The lawsuit comes amid mounting global scrutiny of Grok. Earlier this week, X announced new safeguards following international backlash over the chatbot’s ability to generate sexualized images of women and minors. The company said Grok would no longer be able to edit photos to portray real people in revealing clothing in jurisdictions where such content is illegal.
X also said it is limiting image generation and editing features to paid accounts in an effort to improve accountability. The company reiterated that it has zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content, and pledged to remove such material immediately while reporting child abuse-related cases to law enforcement.
The legal battle adds to growing concerns over the rapid deployment of generative AI tools and the challenges of preventing misuse, particularly when it comes to deepfakes, consent, and personal privacy.
