Support Now From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, is facing a lawsuit from three teenagers in Tennessee, who allege its image-generation tools were used to transform genuine photographs of them into sexually explicit content. The high school students, who have requested to proceed under pseudonyms, initiated the legal action in California, the state where xAI, Mr Musk's AI venture, maintains its headquarters. They are seeking class-action status, aiming to represent what the legal filing claims are thousands of victims, all of whom were either minors at the time or have since reached adulthood, whose sexually explicit images were generated. The lawsuit specifically highlights the case of Jane Doe 1, who was anonymously alerted in December that explicit images of her were being distributed across a social media platform. “At least five of these files, one video and four images, depicted her actual face and body in settings with which she was familiar, but morphed into sexually explicit poses," the lawsuit states. It claims the person distributing the images knew Doe and used xAI's image generation tools to turn real photos of her into sexually abusive ones. One of the images was taken from a homecoming photo. Another was taken from a high school yearbook. The person distributing the images also created explicit images of at least 18 other girls, two of whom are co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit. In late December, local police arrested the perpetrator and confiscated his phone. They found that he had uploaded the images to several platforms where he traded them for sexually explicit images of other minors. Other AI companies have prohibited their image-generators from producing any sexually explicit content, even of adults. Musk saw this as a business opportunity and promoted the ability of xAI's Grok chatbot to create “spicy” content, the lawsuit claims. However, there is currently no way to prevent the generation of explicit images of adults while completely blocking the generation of images of children, the lawsuit claims. It also claims that xAI knew Grok would be able to produce sexually explicit images of children but released it anyway. open image in gallery Workers install lights on an "X" sign atop the company headquarters in downtown San Francisco on July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File) The lawsuit claims the person who distributed images of the plaintiffs used an application that licensed the xAI technology or “otherwise purchased its access to Grok, and was used as a cut-out or middleman.” XAI did not respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment. But a Jan. 14 post about the controversy on the social media platform X said: "We remain committed to making X a safe platform for everyone and continue to have zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content. “We take action to remove high-priority violative content, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and non-consensual nudity, taking appropriate action against accounts that violate our X Rules. We also report accounts seeking Child Sexual Exploitation materials to law enforcement authorities as necessary.” Meanwhile, the students in the lawsuit said they worry that the images created of them will live forever on the internet. They fear stalking because their real first names and the name of their school are attached to the files. They worry that their friends and classmates have seen the photos and videos, which appear to be real, and they worry about who will see them in the future. Jane Doe 1 said she has suffered from anxiety, depression, stress. “She has difficulty eating and sleeping and suffers from recurring nightmares," the lawsuit states. Jane Doe 2 "has begun self-isolating and avoiding being on her school campus, and even dreads attending her own graduation.” Jane Doe 3 suffers from constant fear and anxiety that someone will see the AI-generated images and recognize her face, according to the lawsuit. More about