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Akbar Novruz

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The US Department of Justice has joined Elon Musk’s xAI in challenging a Minnesota law that prohibits online services from enabling users to create non-consensual sexually explicit images of identifiable people using artificial intelligence.

The DOJ filed a statement of interest in the case this week, arguing that Minnesota’s law is overly broad and potentially restricts constitutionally protected conduct that is not prohibited under federal law.

Minnesota’s legislation prohibits operators of websites, applications and software from allowing users to access or use their services to “nudify” images or videos, or from carrying out such alterations on behalf of users. Violations can result in fines of up to $500,000.

The law defines “nudify” as altering or generating an image or video to depict an intimate body part that was not visible in the original image of an identifiable person, provided the resulting image is realistic enough that a reasonable person could believe the intimate part belongs to that individual.

In its filing, the Justice Department argued that the law “sweeps up constitutional and productive conduct not prohibited under federal law” because of the way Minnesota drafted and intends to enforce the legislation.

The DOJ’s intervention comes after xAI filed a lawsuit against Minnesota last month, arguing that the law violates the First Amendment. The company has also argued that it could be held liable for content generated by users despite having moderation measures designed to prevent such activity.

xAI attorney Robert Dunn argued that the legislation could punish the company even when users generate images of themselves.

Minnesota officials have rejected xAI’s arguments, maintaining that the company remains responsible for preventing prohibited content from being generated through its services. Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Janine Kimble said that xAI points to its terms of service prohibiting such content while the state has continued to see large numbers of users generating such images.

The dispute has gained additional attention because of previous controversies surrounding Grok, xAI’s chatbot integrated with X. The system has faced criticism over its ability to generate sexually explicit deepfake images, including non-consensual images of real people. Musk previously acknowledged problems with the chatbot’s safeguards and attributed some incidents to “lapses in safeguards.”

The case places the Justice Department and xAI on the same side of a broader legal dispute over how far states can go in regulating AI-generated sexual imagery, particularly when laws impose liability on AI companies for content created by their users.