xAI sued for pornographic images
XAI says that a Minnesota law targeting deepfakes goes to far.

Elon Musk's xAI is suing Minnesota, claiming that the state's attempt to crack down on deepfake porn imagery goes too far and violates the First Amendment.

CNBC reported that the Minnesota law goes into effect this Saturday and is set to allow authorities to impose a $500,000 fine each time a user creates explicit deepfakes.

Legislators took action after an incident in which a man created sexualized images and videos of more than 80 women he knew using their social media photos without their consent.

"We need to ban nudification features because they allow users to create non-consensual, unauthorized deep fakes of sexually explicit content, including child sexual abuse material," Rep. Jessica Hanson said.

However, Musk's company argues in its lawsuit that the law, while well-intentioned, is too broad and violates the First Amendment.

"xAI. . .does not contest Minnesota's interest in prohibiting the dissemination of artificially generated nude images of real people without their consent," the lawsuit states. "But the statute Minnesota enacted extends far beyond that goal, exposing a wide array of protected speech to civil liability and government sanctions."

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The company states that it prohibits users from generating nude or sexualized images of people without their consent and has taken legal action against users who "evade its technological blockers."

"There is no safe harbor for good-faith efforts of the provider of general-purpose AI creative tools to avoid harms," reads a passage of the lawsuit. "Liability attaches even if the depicted persons consented—or created the image themselves—and even if the image is never shared."

According to the lawsuit, the law would technically apply to images that have "artistic, scientific, political, satirical, educational, medical, or religious value."

Before passing the law, Minnesota lawmakers heard from some of the 80 women whose images had been misused.

"I cannot overstate the harm this technology has caused. I was afraid to leave my house for weeks. I suffered, and I still suffer, trying to understand who to trust," said Jessica Guistolise.