Elon Musk's AI company went to court to try to block America's first ban on AI-generated fake nude images. A federal judge just refused.

Here's the full story, via Reuters and Deccan Chronicle.

Minnesota's ban on AI-generated fake nude images took effect August 1. It prohibits "website operators, software developers and others from allowing users to 'nudify' images of identifiable people using AI technology," placing the legal responsibility on the companies that build these tools, not only on the individuals who misuse them. Minnesota argues the law "is narrowly tailored to curb the spread of nonconsensual sexual imagery created with artificial intelligence."

xAI, Musk's AI company, sued to block the law, arguing it "restricts free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution." This wasn't xAI's first attempt: back in July, the same judge, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, "turned down Musk's bid... to stop the law from taking effect," though he agreed to fast-track his review of the case. On September 4, Frank went further, rejecting xAI's request for a preliminary injunction altogether, ruling that the company "failed to show it would suffer harm while it pursues a lawsuit alleging the new law violates the Constitution's First Amendment by restricting protected expressive activity."

Frank's order didn't dismiss the stakes involved. "The constitutional issues raised by the parties are complex, particularly when considered in the context of this new technology and the risks that it poses to the public," he wrote. "These issues deserve, and will receive, full consideration." xAI said in a court filing that it will appeal the ruling to the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, called the state's law "overwhelmingly bipartisan and nearly unanimously approved" by state lawmakers. "These nudification apps have been used to generate child sexual abuse materials and harass people in the vilest ways imaginable," Ellison said in a statement. "That repulsive behavior is not welcome in Minnesota."

The ruling lands against a backdrop of scrutiny for Musk's own AI chatbot. "Musk's Grok AI chatbot has faced criticism over its creation of sexually explicit content," with regulators seeking "stronger safeguards" and imposing bans "to help curb the spread of artificially created illegal material." In a twist, xAI has itself "begun suing users it alleges are evading Grok's technological blockers to create sexual images of people without their consent," going after the same kind of misuse its own product has been criticized for enabling.

For now, Minnesota's nudification ban stays in force while xAI's constitutional challenge plays out in the courts, and the company is expected to appeal. The case is an early test of a legal approach few other states have tried: making the builders of AI tools, not just their users, legally responsible for nonconsensual sexual imagery.

Source: Reuters, via Deccan Chronicle: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/elon-musks-xai-loses-court-bid-to-block-minnesotas-ai-nudification-ban-1985307

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