California investigates Elon Musk’s xAI over sexualized images

Grok’s prompt page, displayed on a phone in Berkeley, Calif., on Oct. 29, 2025. California’s attorney general on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, said the state had opened an investigation into Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, for generating sexualized images of women and children. (Andria Lo/The New York Times)

By KATE CONGER

California’s attorney general earlier this week said the state had opened an investigation into Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, for generating sexualized images of women and children.

The inquiry will examine whether xAI, which owns the social media platform X and created the AI chatbot Grok, violated state law by facilitating the creation of nonconsensual intimate images. Starting in late December, X was flooded with images generated using Grok of real people, including children, in underwear and in sexual poses.

“This is very explicit. It’s very visible. This isn’t a bug in the system, this is a design in the system,” California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said in an interview. “That’s why we launched an investigation today, because of the shocking and potentially illegal nonconsensual sexually explicit material that has been produced using Grok.”

The investigation adds to pressure xAI is facing over the images, which victims and regulators have decried. Britain launched a formal inquiry into the issue Monday as regulators there examined whether X violated an online safety law. Officials in India and Malaysia have also said they are investigating xAI.

California law prohibits the use of AI to create nonconsensual sexual images, Bonta said. Musk’s xAI could face monetary penalties of $25,000 per image, and the state could also secure a legal injunction that would prohibit the company from continuing to generate such images, he added.

“The whole world could see it and observe it,” Bonta said of the deluge of images that Grok generated and posted on X. “There were tens of thousands of engagements.”

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the California investigation.

In a Jan. 3 statement posted on X, the social media company said it would remove illegal content depicting children and permanently suspend accounts that asked Grok to create such images.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said of the investigation that “xAI’s decision to create and host a breeding ground for predators to spread nonconsensual sexually explicit AI deepfakes, including images that digitally undress children, is vile.” He added, “The company must be held fully accountable under the law.”

On Thursday, the Grok account on X began responding to requests for AI images only from X subscribers who pay for certain premium features — and continued to generate intimate images for those users. Grok will still create those images for any user on its separate app and website.

Musk has shared posts arguing that xAI is no different from other tech tools that offer AI image generation or image editing software like Photoshop.

On Wednesday, Musk posted that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.” He added, “When asked to generate images, it will refuse to produce anything illegal.”

Later that day, Musk encouraged X users to prove him wrong. He shared a post from a user who said Grok had not created fully nude imagery when prompted, and added: “Can anyone actually break Grok image moderation? Reply below.”

Grok may face additional scrutiny in the coming weeks. On Monday, Liz Kendall, Britain’s technology secretary, said the government would begin more aggressively enforcing a law next week that makes it illegal for people to create nonconsensual intimate images. The country also plans to draft legislation to make it illegal for companies to provide tools designed to make such illicit images.