An NBC News review found dozens of AI-generated sexualized images of real women posted to X over the past month.
Attorneys for the company say, if enacted, the law would significantly abridge Grok and Grok Imagine users’ First Amendment rights.
“Although Minnesota likely has a compelling interest in preventing individuals from creating nudes of other people without consent and distributing that content, the statute punishes AI platforms for assisting in the creation of a substantial amount of protected speech in relation to that limited goal,” the company wrote.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, posted on X that he was prepared to defend the law.
“Using AI to generate nude images of people against their will is appalling. There are plenty of worthy debates to have about AI. This is not one of them. AI nudification robs the target of their dignity and could cause them immense harm on many levels,” Ellison wrote. “I'll see X in court.”
The House sponsor of the law, DFL Rep. Jess Hanson of Burnsville, said the pushback didn’t come as a surprise but she hoped that the companies would abide by the law.
“They're kind of being like, ‘Well, it's not our fault what people choose to do,’ but at the same time, you're providing the tool, right?” she said. “And there's no constitutional protection for providing a tool like that.” <-- this could be an interesting/arguable point.
Hanson said that AI tools are some of the most prevalent ways in which child pornography is being made and said companies should be working in conjunction with laws trying to stop it.