xAI sues man accused of misusing Grok to sexualise minors
Elon Musk’s AI company says a South Carolina user tried to bypass Grok safeguards to make sexually explicit images from non-sexual photos.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
Elon Musk’s xAI has sued a South Carolina man, accusing him of using its Grok AI tool to create sexually explicit content involving a child. The case matters because Al Jazeera and Reuters reported it is the first lawsuit brought by an AI company against one of its own users.
The complaint, filed Tuesday in federal court in Texas, names Terry Harwood, who Al Jazeera and Reuters reported was arrested earlier this year on charges of sexually exploiting minors. xAI alleges Harwood knowingly broke the company’s terms of service and acceptable use rules.
According to the 12-page complaint, Harwood opened multiple xAI accounts under false identities and used misleading prompts in attempts to get around Grok’s safety systems. The filing says he used the tool to turn non-sexual photographs into explicit images without the knowledge or consent of the people shown.
What xAI alleges
xAI’s lawsuit says Harwood uploaded ordinary images of adults and minors and tried to make so-called deepfakes that sexualised the people in them. The company says Grok refused many of those requests because they violated the tool’s moderation safeguards.
The complaint alleges Harwood then kept changing his prompts to defeat those restrictions. xAI says those repeated attempts formed part of a deliberate effort to bypass the company’s content controls.
The company is asking the court for monetary damages, though the filing did not name a specific amount, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. xAI also wants a permanent order blocking Harwood from using its platform, which the report said has more than 2.6 million users.
Scrutiny of Grok
The lawsuit comes as xAI faces scrutiny over sexually explicit material that users can generate on Grok, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. The report said the tool has drawn attention in Washington, faced pressure from European regulators and been banned in Malaysia and Indonesia over explicit content available on the platform.
Musk addressed related allegations earlier this year. In a January post on X, he said he was not aware of Grok generating nude images of underage people, adding: “Literally zero.”
In its complaint, xAI says it enforces its rules by suspending and terminating accounts and by reporting suspected child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The company says it had suspended more than 52,000 accounts and made more than 73,000 reports to the organisation in 2026.
According to the complaint, those reports led to nearly 250 arrests in 2026 alone. xAI is asking the Texas court to treat Harwood’s alleged conduct as a violation of the rules he accepted when he used the service.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.