Baltimore Sues xAI Over Grok Sexual Deepfakes

The government of Baltimore filed a lawsuit in the Baltimore Circuit Court on March 24, 2026, against xAI, alleging the company violated consumer protection ordinances. The suit claims the company marketed its Grok chatbot as a safe AI assistant while failing to implement guardrails, allowing users to generate non-consensual sexualized deepfakes, including images of children.

City officials cite an analysis by the Center for Countering Digital Hate estimating that Grok generated 3 million sexualized images, including over 23,000 of children, during an 11-day window earlier in the year. The complaint also highlights a viral trend of sexualized edits and a December 31, 2025, image shared by Elon Musk of himself in a bikini, which the city argues served as a public endorsement of the tool's ability to create revealing edits of real people.

Baltimore is seeking maximum statutory penalties, restitution, and injunctive relief to force design changes to the AI's features. This legal action follows a similar lawsuit filed by Tennessee minors on March 16 and ongoing international regulatory probes across Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Americas. Elon Musk has denied knowledge of the platform producing naked underage images, while xAI previously stated it began limiting certain image requests.