Three teenagers have filed a federal lawsuit in California against Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, claiming its chatbot Grok enabled the creation of sexually explicit images of them without consent.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday, alleges that a Grok user altered videos and photos of the teens to depict them nude or in sexual situations. Grok is hosted on Musk’s social media platform X and was launched in 2023 with a “spicy mode” that allowed users to generate sexualized content.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said xAI developed the feature primarily to increase engagement, despite knowing it could produce sexualized images of minors. The complaint described the altered images as “a rag doll brought to life through the dark arts” and accused Musk and xAI of exploiting the technology for business gain.

Two of the teenagers are under 18, while all three are keeping their identities private. One plaintiff discovered her altered images after receiving an anonymous Instagram message directing her to a Discord server where similar AI-generated sexual content of at least 18 other minors was being shared.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and an immediate order banning Grok from generating such images. Investigations by authorities in the UK, EU, and California into Grok’s capabilities to produce sexualized content of real people, particularly children, are ongoing.

Earlier this year, X announced it would implement “technological measures” to block Grok from undressing people in images. The alleged perpetrator behind the Discord server has been arrested and is under investigation for distributing hundreds of AI-altered sexual abuse images of minors.

With inputs from BBC