Baltimore has filed a municipal lawsuit against xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, over the role of Grok in generating non-consensual sexualized deepfakes. The legal action marks the first US municipal challenge against the platform, which has faced global scrutiny for its image generation capabilities and failure to implement adequate safeguards.

The lawsuit comes after Grok's image generation tool created an estimated 3 million sexualized images over just 11 days, including 23,000 of minors, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Regulators worldwide have limited access or launched investigations into potentially illegal content produced by the AI platform concerned about the scale of non-consensual material.

Baltimore claims xAI violated the city's Consumer Protection Ordinance by marketing Grok as an all-purpose AI assistant without disclosing risks. City Solicitor Ebony M. Thompson emphasized the city's obligation to protect residents from emerging technological harms. This follows a separate class action filed by teenagers alleging their photos were used to create child sexual abuse material.