Bonta’s letter demands that the AI company cease generating non-consensual intimate and child sexual abuse material.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a cease-and-desist letter to xAI, the AI company behind the Grok model, demanding it immediately stop creating and disseminating deepfake, non-consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
The letter applies to xAI and its AI image generation and editing tools, including functionality used on the social media platform X. Bonta’s office said the creation, distribution, publication, and exhibition of CSAM is a crime under California law and that xAI’s practices also violate state civil statutes.
Bonta, as the state’s chief law enforcement officer, said his office had opened an investigation into the proliferation of non-consensual sexually explicit material produced using Grok. The cease-and-desist demand requires xAI to stop: creating or disclosing digitized sexually explicit material of individuals without their consent; facilitating such content; and creating or distributing any images that depict or appear to depict minors engaged in sexual conduct.
“This week, my office formally announced an investigation into the creation and spread of nonconsensual, sexually explicit material produced using Grok,” Bonta said in a statement. “The avalanche of reports detailing this material – at times depicting women and children engaged in sexual activity – is shocking and, as my office has determined, potentially illegal.”
Bonta added, “The creation of this material is illegal. I fully expect xAI to immediately comply. California has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse material.”
The letter cites California Civil Code section 1708.86, Penal Code sections 311 et seq. and 647(j)(4), and Business & Professions Code section 17200 as the legal bases for the demands. It also directs xAI to confirm within five days the steps it is taking to address the issues identified.
