xAI sues Bentonville photographer over alleged Grok abuse

xAI, Elon Musk’s company behind Grok, has sued Bentonville photographer Bloodworth in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Wichita Falls Division, alleging he used the chatbot to create sexually explicit images of children. Bloodworth, 43, faces 100 counts of pandering or possessing visual or print medium depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child and 100 counts of unlawful creation or distribution of deepfake visual material and engaging children in sexually explicit conduct for use in visual or print medium. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

The complaint says xAI is seeking to enforce its terms of service and acceptable use policy. It alleges Grok initially rejected prompts that attempted to sexualize images, but Bloodworth repeatedly submitted altered adversarial prompts to bypass moderation. xAI says it submitted a CyberTip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on April 23, which was passed to the Bentonville Police Department on June 8 and led to his arrest.

xAI seeks a judicial declaration that Bloodworth violated its policies, enforcement of an indemnification provision, injunctive relief barring him from creating more accounts or bypassing safeguards, and unspecified damages. The company says it has suspended 77,723 accounts and made 100,235 reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, resulting in at least 299 arrests. Separate suits in Arkansas and California accuse xAI of allowing children’s images to be sexualized.