Musk’s xAI Faces California AG Probe Over Grok Sexual Images

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is under investigation by the California attorney general’s office after the company’s Grok chatbot was allegedly used to create thousands of sexualized images of women and children without their consent.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the investigation Wednesday, saying in a statement that Grok’s role in generating nonconsensual, sexualized images of women and girls on the social network X over the past two weeks was “shocking.”

“I urge xAI to take immediate action to ensure this goes no further,” Bonta said in the statement. “We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material.”

xAI’s decision to create and host a breeding ground for predators to spread nonconsensual sexually explicit AI deepfakes, including images that digitally undress children, is vile.

I am calling on the Attorney General to immediately investigate the company and hold xAI…

— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) January 14, 2026

Musk has been under fire by governments and regulators around the world because of Grok’s image-generation technology. Musk has so far defended Grok, arguing that the issue stems from user abuse of the tool, and not the technology itself.

“Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images, it does so only according to user requests,” Musk posted on X Wednesday. “When asked to generate images, it will refuse to produce anything illegal, as the operating principle.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a post on X that he called on the attorney general to “immediately investigate the company and hold xAI accountable.”

A number of European countries have opened similar investigations into xAI and Grok, including France and the U.K. The European Union is also probing whether the images violate the bloc’s Digital Services Act.

A spokesperson for xAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Top photo: The Grok logo on a smartphone. Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg.