Minnesota Says Grok Fueled Digital Sexual Violence in xAI Speech Fight

AI “nudification” tools can turn photographs of real people into fabricated nude or sexual images, with women and children among the principal targets. Minnesota’s HF 1606, the first state law of its kind in the US, shifts liability toward platforms that provide such technology. Effective Aug. 1, 2026, it authorizes civil penalties of as much as $500,000 per violation, setting up a consequential test of how governments may regulate generative-AI products without unlawfully restricting expression.

xAI sued Minnesota on July 27, arguing the statute is an overbroad, content-based restriction that may reach consensual, private and nonsexual images protected by the First Amendment. Attorney General Keith Ellison countered that Grok had created a “marketplace for digital sexual violence” and said the law regulates a harmful tool, not speech itself. US District Judge Donovan Frank denied xAI’s request for a temporary restraining order on July 31, allowing the ban to take effect and scheduling an Aug. 19 hearing on a preliminary injunction.