Ashley St Clair, a writer and political commentator and mother of Elon Musk’s 16-month-old son, filed a lawsuit in New York City against xAI, alleging Grok was used to generate sexually exploitative deepfake images of her, causing humiliation and emotional distress. She says she reported the images to Musk’s X platform (which hosts Grok) they began appearing last year; X allegedly told her the images did not violate policy, later promised not to allow her images to be used or altered without consent, but then removed her premium subscription and verification and continued allowing the images. The filing came just before California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a cease-and-desist letter to xAI demanding it stop the creation and distribution of Grok-generated nonconsensual sexualised imagery, calling reports of such material—sometimes depicting women and children in sexual activity—“shocking” and potentially illegal. xAI responded by countersuing St Clair in federal court in the Northern District of Texas, arguing she violated a user agreement requiring suits to be filed in Texas federal court, and seeking an undisclosed monetary judgment. St Clair’s lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, said St Clair would fight to keep the case in New York and argued xAI’s conduct amounts to a public nuisance and an unsafe product. Grok is also facing scrutiny and backlash in multiple jurisdictions, including the UK and EU, and in countries such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan; Japanese authorities said they are probing X and considering options to prevent generation of inappropriate images.