Washington AG joins multi-state effort to rein in ai-generated nonconsensual images: “I’m heartened”

Olympia, Washington – Washington Attorney General Nick Brown is now part of a bipartisan group of attorneys general that is asking xAI to stop its chatbot from making sexual content without consent, such as fake personal photos and content involving children. The group, which includes 35 state and territorial attorneys general, issued a formal request to the company after they raised concerns about Grok, the AI tool run by xAI and linked to the X social media platform.

The attorneys general believe that Grok has been used in the past few weeks to make and show explicit photos at the request of users, often without the permission of the people shown. The organization says that this content has been easy to find and propagated, which has led to harassment and exploitation and taken away people’s ability to choose how their bodies and images are shown online.

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Brown said the problem goes beyond politics and has clear legal and moral borders.

“We can’t allow big tech companies to flout the law in creating tools that allow users to create nonconsensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material through AI,” said Brown.

“I’m heartened by the fact that this bipartisan group can come together to demand accountability for how the platform has facilitated this disturbing behavior.”

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The attorneys general say that users kept telling Grok to “undress” real individuals, especially women and children, or to put them in sexual situations without their permission. Some reports say that the chatbot made pictures of children in minimal clothing or sexual contexts. The coalition says that xAI has made Grok’s permissive content generation a selling point and that the ability to make explicit photographs without consent seems to be intentional rather than accidental.

The attorneys general claim that the modest safety measures that xAI has put in place recently don’t go far enough. They want unambiguous promises that the measures will work, last a long time, and be enforced all the time. The letter also tells xAI to quickly honor requests to remove content that people didn’t agree to, which will be required by federal law when the Take It Down Act goes into force in May 2026.

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The attorneys general, who are the top law enforcement officials in respective jurisdictions, claim that Grok’s outputs may break both civil and criminal laws. Some of them are regulations that deal with nonconsensual intimate photos and laws that make it illegal to make and share child sexual abuse material. They also talk about legal options that are already available to keep victims from being hurt again.

It is against the law in Washington state to share private pictures without permission, even if they are fake or digitally manipulated, which are sometimes called “deepfakes.” Even if the pictures are fake and don’t show real children, state law makes it illegal to have or share child sexual abuse material.

The coalition wants xAI to explain how it will stop Grok from making nonconsensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material, get rid of content that has already been made, penalize users who made the content, and let X users decide if Grok can change or edit their content.

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Attorneys general from more than 30 states and territories across the country have also signed the letter with Brown. The group claims that the quick growth of AI technologies means that action needs to be taken immediately to prevent more damage and make sure that IT corporations do what they are supposed to do by law.