xAI Sues Photographer Over Child Abuse Images Made With Grok

xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, is suing Russell Bloodworth, a photographer who ran a portrait business in Bentonville, Arkansas, for about 15 years. The company argues Bloodworth is responsible for turning his own client photographs into sexually explicit images of minors using Grok.

Bloodworth was arrested in June 2026 and has pleaded not guilty to more than 200 charges related to allegedly using Grok to create thousands of child sexual abuse images from photos of his clients. The investigation began after Bentonville police received a cyber tip from X, leading a detective to portraits of a girl that had been altered with Grok to remove her clothing.

The lawsuit is notable for how it shifts blame for misuse of an AI product onto the user rather than the platform. In August 2025, xAI introduced a "spicy mode" for Grok capable of generating photorealistic nudity; a subsequent image-editing feature led to a wave of deepfake pornographic images, most targeting women but some involving children.

The case highlights the legal uncertainty emerging where AI editing tools intersect with photography: a tool's maker is suing the person who allegedly abused it, in what appears to be an attempt to limit its own liability.