xAI sues South Carolina man for illegal minor deepfakes

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, has filed a federal lawsuit against a South Carolina man, alleging he exploited its Grok chatbot to create explicit deepfake images of minors. The lawsuit, filed in a Texas federal court on July 14, 2026, targets Terry Harwood, who was arrested on separate charges of sexually exploiting minors in February 2026.

According to the 12-page complaint, Harwood allegedly opened multiple xAI accounts under false identities and deliberately circumvented the platform's built-in safety guardrails. The lawsuit states he uploaded non-sexual photographs of both adults and minors and then used misleading prompts to manipulate Grok into generating sexually explicit deepfakes without the subjects' knowledge or consent. The complaint details that when Grok initially refused such requests due to content moderation policies, Harwood repeatedly altered his prompts in an effort to bypass those safeguards.

xAI is seeking an unspecified amount in monetary damages and a permanent court order banning Harwood from accessing any of its products. The company argues his actions were a calculated scheme to weaponize its tool for criminal ends, causing profound...