xAI’s last-minute scramble to stop Minnesota’s anti-nudification app law

<figure> <img alt="Elon Musk in front of a background of geometric shapes." data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/STK022_ELON_MUSK_CVIRGINIA4_I.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" /> <figcaption> </figcaption> </figure> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">xAI is suing Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison over a <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/minnesota-gov-walz-sings-first-of-its-kind-law-to-stop-ai-being-used-for-csam/ar-AA22DBIp">law passed back in May</a> that broadly targets "nudification" apps, claiming that <a href="https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/94/2025/0/HF/1606/">the statute's punitive provisions</a> leave the company with "no practical choice but to restrict Grok Imagine's image-editing features in various ways." The law, the company argues, violates the First Amendment. </p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Back in January, Grok flooded the internet with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/technology/grok-x-ai-elon-musk-deepfakes.html">millions of sexually explicit deepfakes</a>, including <a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/855832/grok-undressing-children-csam-law-x-elon-musk">images of minors</a>. In another era, a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/podcast/865275/grok-deepfake-undressing-elon-musk-content-moderation">content moderation disaster</a> of this magnitude would have had the CEO flipping the kill switch on the product within hours. But in Elon Musk's brave new world, the …</p> <p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/policy/972850/xai-grok-minnesota-nudification-lawsuit">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>