On July 15, 2026, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI filed a lawsuit in federal court in Texas against Terry Harwood, a South Carolina man arrested earlier this year on charges of sexually exploiting minors. xAI alleges that Harwood misused the company's AI system, Grok, to generate child sexual abuse material, violating the platform's terms of service.

According to the lawsuit, Harwood uploaded non-sexual images of adults and minors to Grok and attempted to create sexually explicit deepfakes based on those images. xAI described these actions as "a calculated scheme to weaponize Plaintiff’s tool for criminal ends, exposing real victims to profound and lasting harm, while exposing Plaintiff to significant legal risk and reputational damage."

The case is among the first initiated by an AI company against a user for allegedly using AI technology to produce explicit content. xAI's complaint emphasized the company's strict enforcement policies, which include account suspensions, terminations, and reporting suspected child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

In 2026 alone, xAI has suspended 52,222 accounts and made 73,604 reports to NCMEC, leading to at least 244 arrests. Contact information for Harwood, who was arrested in February, has not been made publicly available. xAI representatives did not respond to requests for comment as of July 15.

This lawsuit follows global scrutiny of Grok amid allegations that the AI system has been used to generate non-consensual sexualized deepfakes—realistic-looking videos fabricated by AI without consent.

Sources