xAI sues Minnesota over first-in-nation AI nudification ban

Elon Musk's xAI has picked its First Amendment fight, and it is Minnesota. The company filed suit in federal court on Monday against Attorney General Keith Ellison, asking a judge to strike down HF 1606, the first US state law banning AI nudification technology, CBS Minnesota reported. Governor Tim Walz, who signed the bill, responded to the suit with "See you in court, creep."

The law is scheduled to take effect in August and lets victims and the attorney general sue companies whose tools generate nonconsensual sexualized images, with penalties reported at $500,000 each time a user creates an explicit deepfake. xAI's brief is careful about where it draws its line. It says the company "does not contest Minnesota's interest in prohibiting the dissemination of artificially generated nude images of real people without their consent," but argues the statute "imposes an overbroad, content-based ban on free speech and the tools of visual expression." The complaint points to the law's definition of "intimate part" as sweeping enough to potentially cover shirtless men or people in swimsuits, and notes that strict liability applies even when safety measures are in place or when depicted subjects consented.

Why this matters beyond one state fight: this is the first federal test of a wave of state-level generative-AI content laws, and xAI is running a familiar playbook, treating an AI model that outputs images as speech and its filters as editorial judgment. If a federal court agrees the statute is content-based, other state statutes using similar nudify language will face strict scrutiny. If it does not, expect more states to copy Minnesota's template and start naming foundation-model providers directly.

The honest caveat is that we only have the plaintiff's framing so far. The complaint has not been tested, Ellison has not filed a response, and the reporting does not detail what safeguards Grok's image tools actually apply today or how often they are bypassed. Ellison's public line, that "AI nudification robs the target of their dignity and can cause immense harm on an emotional, personal, and professional level," will be the state's opening move on the harm side of the balance.

Whoever wins here writes the template. A win for xAI pushes states toward narrower, harm-focused statutes rather than tool bans. A win for Minnesota hands every state attorney general an unlocked path to sue image-model providers for downstream misuse, and the labs with the strictest built-in filters will suddenly look a lot more attractive to enterprise buyers.