Elon Musk's AI startup xAI filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against a South Carolina man, alleging he used the Grok chatbot to generate child sexual abuse material in violation of the company's terms of service.
The lawsuit, one of the first by an AI company against a user over explicit AI content, seeks damages and a permanent ban from Grok
Getty Images / NurPhoto
Elon Musk's AI startup xAI filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against a South Carolina man, alleging he used the Grok chatbot to generate child sexual abuse material in violation of the company's terms of service.
Reuters described the lawsuit as among the earliest instances of an AI company taking legal action against a user over the alleged production of explicit content with its technology. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
The defendant, Terry Wayne Harwood, was arrested in February on multiple counts of alleged sexual exploitation of a minor, according to CNN. According to xAI's complaint, Harwood opened multiple accounts and submitted what the company called "misleading prompts" to get around the platform's "built-in safeguards," feeding it non-sexual photographs of adults and children as source material for sexually explicit deepfakes. Contact information for Terry Wayne Harwood was not immediately available, according to Reuters.
"Defendant's actions were a calculated scheme to weaponize Plaintiff's tool for criminal ends, exposing real victims to profound and lasting harm, while exposing Plaintiff to significant legal risk and reputational damage," xAI said in the lawsuit.
xAI has asked the court to award monetary damages in an amount to be determined and to issue a permanent injunction preventing Terry Wayne Harwood from accessing Grok. The company also asked the court to declare that he violated its terms of service.
The complaint states that xAI has taken down 52,222 accounts and submitted 73,604 reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children so far in 2026, actions the company says have contributed to at least 244 arrests.
The case arrives amid sustained legal pressure on xAI over Grok's image-generation features. Baltimore's city government filed suit against xAI in circuit court, alleging Grok violates local consumer protection laws by producing nonconsensual explicit deepfakes, including images of minors. Separately, three Tennessee teenagers brought a class action in federal court in California, alleging that a perpetrator used a third-party app licensed to xAI's technology to generate child sexual abuse material depicting them. A U.K. member of Parliament, Jess Asato, has also filed a claim in England's High Court against xAI over nonconsensual sexual deepfake images generated of her.
xAI has said it takes action against misuse by suspending accounts and reporting suspected child sexual abuse material to authorities. Spokespeople for xAI did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
Join 500,000+ readers who start their day with Quartz.
By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.