Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is suing Minnesota over a bill that bans technology from being used to create deepfake images and videos of individuals in the nude without their consent, and ensures criminal penalties for doing so.
The AI “nudification” ban bill, which was authored by state Senator Erin Maye Quade (D-Apple Valley) and co-sponsored by state Rep. Jessica Hanson (D-Burnsville) goes into effect on Saturday, August 1. The bill was approved unanimously in the Senate and passed the House with only one vote in opposition.
On Wednesday, July 28, Musk’s company x.AI LLC sued the Minnesota District Court, claiming that Grok, its AI system, already bans this type of conduct. It also claimed that the bill infringes upon users’ rights to freedom of speech. “Satirical images restored or animated family photographs, and creative projects that Minnesota users could not have made by editing images with Grok Imagine will be affected,” the company said in its complaint.
While Grok’s claim that this conduct is already banned is true, that doesn’t mean that a ban is being followed or enforced. The nudification tool has already gone viral for its usage removing women’s clothes and creating violent, non-consensual images of individuals.
Grok AI has specifically been accused of creating child sexual assault material (CSAM) and sexual assault material (SAM). The Center for Countering Digital Hate nonprofit group reported that Grok AI generated three million sexualized images in 11 days, 23,000 of which were CSAM.
Despite the bill being signed in May, Musk decided to file the lawsuit just days before it goes into effect. The timing of the lawsuit is even more peculiar because it was announced the same week Musk was sued by three different groups of people over AI nudification, SAM, and CSAM. The plaintiffs include a UK lawmaker, an Arkansas family, and five Tennessee children.
Maye Quade spoke to the public about the bill and lawsuit on Wednesday, July 29. She said the law was carefully crafted to adhere to First Amendment protections. Maye Quade said the law has exceptions for images or videos created “using substantial human means.” She explained that this means if someone creates art, that’s protected.
“Art is protected, the First Amendment is protected, expression is protected. But the conduct of making people naked is regulated,” Maye Quade said.
She also called out what she believes are Musk’s real intentions behind this lawsuit: “When the richest man in the world is suing you because you want to protect kids, you have to wonder, why doesn’t he want them protected?”
Maye Quade told press that she is “confident that our nation-leading ban will withstand judicial scrutiny.” She said that lawmakers from across the country have reached out to her and will be introducing similar bills in the 2027-2028 legislature.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison agrees, posting to X that he’ll “see X in court,” and that “AI nudification robs the target of their dignity and could cause them immense harm on many levels.”
Harm has already come to Minnesotans because of the nudification feature. Two years ago, over 80 Minnesota women learned that images and videos of them nude were made without their consent, all by the same man. Three of the victims—Megan Hurley, Jessica Guistolise, and Molly Kelley—spoke at the Capitol with Maye Quade and Hanson.
Hurley said she had gone on vacation with her family when she found the images and has “been in a state of grief, rage, or despair since then.” She said she had never taken nude images of herself before in her life, but now fake ones are on the internet forever.
Guistolise said the man who did this to them was a dear friend that she knew for 20 years. “This technology doesn’t just live on a screen, it followed me,” she said, explaining that these images have affected her life, work, and relationships.
Kelley says it was her husband’s best friend who was responsible for the images, and she found out about them when she was six months pregnant. “I spent my maternity leave on the phone..making phone calls, trying to get help, notifying the other women I recognized,” she said.” Kelley emphasized that the person who did this wasn’t “creative, clever [or] tenacious,” but that it simply was easy to do with the technology he had.
While the law can’t retroactively punish the man that harmed these three women, nor the other 80 women tied to the case, Maye Quade said it can help so many others. The law goes into effect Saturday, Aug. 1, and Musk’s lawsuit will be ongoing.
