The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore filed a lawsuit on 24 March 2026 against X Corp., xAI Corp., xAI LLC, and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. The lawsuit alleges the companies violated Baltimore's Consumer Protection Ordinance by designing, marketing, and deploying a generative artificial intelligence system, Grok, that produces and disseminates non-consensual sexualised images, including content involving minors.
The action represents a distinct shift in how American municipalities are confronting the Grok crisis. While similar lawsuits have been brought by individual victims, Baltimore is among the first municipalities to take action, using its consumer protection authority to address the widespread harm caused by AI-generated deepfakes and to protect its residents. According to the complaint, defendants deceptively marketed Grok as a safe, general-purpose AI assistant while failing to disclose its ability to generate explicit deepfake content.
The AI tool Grok is estimated to have generated approximately 3 million sexualised images, including 23,000 that appear to depict children, after the launch of a new image editing feature powered by the tool on X, according to analysis by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate. The complaint further alleges that, despite public claims that such content is prohibited, Grok routinely produced and distributed non-consensual intimate imagery and material resembling child sexual abuse content, often with minimal user prompting.
The complaint focuses on what it describes as Grok's "most controversial offerings," dubbed "spicy mode," which allow users to ask Grok to undress or nudify photos of celebrities and private citizens, including children. The lawsuit alleges that defendants' actions constitute unfair and deceptive trade practices by misrepresenting platform safety, failing to disclose material risks, and deploying a product that consumers cannot reasonably control once it is in the marketplace. The City asserts that these practices have caused widespread harm, including emotional distress, reputational damage, and violations of privacy and dignity.
Baltimore's claim is strengthened by Elon Musk's own public endorsement of the tool's controversial features. The city alleged that Musk himself promoted the tool's editing capabilities by participating in the trend by posting an edited photo of himself in a bikini. "Musk's post functioned as public endorsement of Grok's ability to generate sexualised or revealing edits of real people, and it signalled to users that these uses of Grok were acceptable, humorous, and encouraged," the complaint says.
The company's response to the abuse has been inadequate, according to the lawsuit. The City further alleges that defendants failed to implement meaningful safeguards, age verification, or content controls, and instead monetised the technology by placing certain high-risk features behind a paid subscription model after widespread abuse had already occurred.
City Solicitor Ebony M. Thompson said: "Baltimore's consumer protection laws exist to safeguard residents from exactly this kind of emerging harm. When companies introduce powerful technologies without adequate guardrails, the City has both the authority and the obligation to act. We are stepping in now to protect our residents, hold these companies accountable, and prevent these harms from becoming further entrenched as this technology continues to evolve."
Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott added: "These deepfakes, especially those depicting minors, have traumatic, lifelong consequences for victims, who are left with no way to prevent the spread of disturbing, sexualised images created of them without their consent. We're talking about tech companies enabling the sexual exploitation of children. Our city will not stand by and allow this to continue; it's a threat to privacy, dignity, and public safety, and those responsible must be held accountable."
The lawsuit arrives as 35 U.S. state attorneys general have called on xAI to cease allowing sexual deepfakes to be generated. On January 14, 2026, California attorney general Rob Bonta announced an investigation into whether xAI has violated state law with Grok. Beyond America, French ministers reported the AI tool to prosecutors, calling the content "manifestly illegal," and asked regulators to check compliance with the Digital Services Act. On February 3, Paris prosecutors office, a cybercrime team employed by them and Europol searched the Paris offices of X. The investigation started as one into allegations of abuse of algorithms and fraudulent data extraction, but has expanded into spreading Holocaust denial and sexual deepfakes.
Baltimore is seeking "the maximum amount of statutory penalties available," but did not list a specific amount in its complaint. It's also asking for "injunctive relief" to force Musk's company to make changes to X and Grok to curb the creation of non-consenting intimate images, or NCII, and child sexual abuse material, or CSAM. Baltimore wants the court to order X and xAI to "cease the targeting and exploitation of Baltimore's residents, ... reform their exploitative platform design" and revise their marketing.